September 26, is not a day too special for many people. But for some of our brothers, this date means gray. Losing loved ones. As for the nation, this is the greatest depression. This day, exactly 16 years ago, the first major disaster of aviation history of Indonesia occurred, namely the incident of Garuda Indonesia GA 152 Airbus 300-220 plane crashed in Buah Nabar Village, Sibolangit, Deli Serdang, North Sumatra in 1997. The event caused all the dead, 222 passengers and 12 crew. The plane hit a cliff, then exploded and burst into flames, leaving 40 unidentifiable victims.
The plane traveled from Jakarta to Medan. Acehnese are some of the passengers dead.
For a moment forgotten, the wound again slashed the victim's family late last year. For the first time, the video of the victim's evacuation was uploaded on Youtube.com at the end of 2012, 15 years after the event. There is no clear information on who and why the uploader did that.
In the moment of 16 years of this first and greatest crash, I want to give you a glimpse of the messy marutnya our flight system so that danger remains lurking. It's not meant to ruin your holiday plans. This date is at least a momentum to remind us of the importance of flight safety as well as for a reminder of our flight system that has not been good but also never fixed.
Based on my observations on various historical records of plane crashes in Indonesia (or abroad), I draw the conclusion that; in addition to accidents that are CFIT (Controlled Flight into Terrain) in which a flying plane and a crew who trained accidentally fell to the ground, mountains, or waters, as the last case of the Lion Air plane crashed in Bali waters, accidents other than that occur due to human error or human error; either from pilots, field officers, air control towers (ATCs) to people involved in airline management itself. This can be seen from various reports of the National Transportation Safety Commission (NTSC).
Although sometimes the NTSC never explicitly concludes who is responsible for an accident on each of their investigative reports, it refers to what and who is clearly visible (and that is done by similar institutions abroad) as a form of evaluation and improvement. Therefore, it is important to know the cause of what is wrong and why the accident can occur, and then known what to fix.
In fact, similar institutions abroad, committed to seriously investigate a case of plane crash to find answers from every question. They should be able to explain what, why and how the accident happened? Consequently, investigations often take place over the years, such as the occurrence of a South African Airways plane crash from Taipei with the purpose of South Africa in 1987. Aircraft crashed in the sea and black boxes remain sought despite signals from black boxes from the seabed (for easy tracking) only guaranteed for 30 days and the time has passed, but on the basis of the desire to know 'what and why' is wrong, two black boxes (FDR, Flight Data Recorder, flight data recorder and CVR, Cockpit Voice Recorder, recorder conversation in the cockpit) remains traced to its existence and the CVR was finally discovered many years later. In fact, without the aid of signals, the wreckage is almost impossible to be found from the vast sea floor. Incredible, commitment to get rid of all the impossible.
To provide details about the magnitude of the role of human error in an airplane crash, I will review again the 3 biggest aircraft accidents that occurred in Indonesia. Biggest in terms of quantity of deaths.
First, Garuda Indonesia GA 152 crash, flight from Jakarta to Medan, which crashed in Sibolangit-45 km from the point should have landed-in 1997 caused by miscommunication between ATC and pilot about explaining turn left or right when it landed in Polonia. At that time the area of North Sumatra foggy due to forest fire and visibility is very limited, ie 600 meters, so the pilot is very dependent on ATC guidance. The problem is, ATC is misguided. From the CVR transcripts being investigated, the late ATC confirming the error has led the pilot to turn right, which should turn left. As a result, in the CVR transcripts the pilot can only be seen resigned and shouted 'Allahu Akbar' when in front of him already looks cliff and too late to dodge. The conclusion that can be taken, accidents occur due to human error. Surprisingly, there is no final report on the NAMC on this site. Whereas the final report of the Silk Air plane crash in Musi River that occurred after the accident on December 19, 1997 was published on December 14, 2000. (Bonoaksa, 2012).
Second, the fall of Adam Air KI 574 aircraft in Majene Sulawesi waters January 1, 2007. The plane crashed into the sea and sank. All the dead / missing. The result of KNKT investigation based on black box recording, plane crash damage (IRS). On March 25, 2008, KNKT announced that the pilot was involved and faced the navigation problem of navigational guidance system. The pilot then decided to change a navigation mode and this move caused auto-pilot to die. As a result, the aircraft-which should have to be piloted manually, but unnoticed by the pilot-slowly turned right until there was a warning to the plane's direction system as it sloped to the right to pass 35 degrees. In fact, data on Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) after the plane reaches a slope of up to 100 degrees and the nose position of the plane swooped, the pilot did not change the plane's direction either. It is suspected that the pilot is focused on finding out the navigation problem so as not to be aware of the warning. When swooping, the aircraft's grativity pressure changed, the aircraft's situation vibrated so violently that the aircraft's control structure was damaged and the plane then hit the water with the crushed and split plane body due to the high speed and gravity that exceeded the limits of the fuselage.
There is something interesting to be explored in this Adam Air event. The need for a large number of pilots, sometimes leads to leeway in screening the quality of pilots, especially filtering out pilots who understand the technical issues of aviation. It is not necessarily a pilot to have Captain Whip Whitaker, a fictional Denzel Washington character in a terrific Flight movie that is capable of flying the plane upside down 180 degrees, but at least the pilot's knowledge of the vehicle he's in, should be really good. It is common knowledge that the leeway makes many pilots have insufficient knowledge to deal with problems that should be overcome due to the lack of training provided by the airline. In fact, an investigation has mentioned, Garuda Indonesia as the only airline that has Flight Simulator (at least during the Adam Air incident) often see airlines sending 6 pilots when renting a cockpit simulation room that should only be operated by two pilots . The reason, cost efficiency. The simulator is still filled and practiced by two pilots only. The remaining four pilots? They just watched. That explains why most plane crashes happen to new planes. The pilots have not understood all the features of the aircraft.
Another problem, is "cannibalism". In order for damaged aircraft to be able to fly again, any damaged parts are replaced by means of "cannibals" or taken from other parts of the aircraft that are entering the hangar. The patchwork practice also included spare parts of the plane's broken aircraft from Adam Air which crashed in Majene. The conclusion of the Adam Air plane accident is very complex, even it could be a reflection of the badness of other airlines flight system. But the error still boils down to one thing, either directly or indirectly, leading to the airline operator's own stakeholders. Tail, various findings make Adam Air revoked operational permits.
Third, which is still fresh in our minds, the Sukhoi Superjet 100 crash at Mount Salak, Bogor on May 9, 2012. In its investigative report, the NTSC concluded three factors: firstly, pilots and copilots were unaware of Salak mountain in their flying area. Secondly, Cengkareng tower radar is not equipped with minimum altitude of aircraft. Third, to have a taste
