A Garuda Airlines plane has exploded upon landing in Yogyakarta this morning. Of the 140 passengers, 95 have been conformed as survivors. According to news reports something may have ruptured before landing, that caused the plane to explode after it landed and came to a stop.
Ika’s mother has flown once in her life, from Semarang to Jakarta last year. During the flight she had to hold onto a fellow passenger’s hand as they encountered turbulence. After the Adam Air crash she told me there is no amount of money I could give her to take the plane again. For sure air travel gets plenty of attention here in Indonesia. A combination of old planes, shaky maintenance and unpredictable weather conditions increased the incidence of accidents.
Last week on my trip back from Batam, we were rolling out for take off and the skies darkened. Down came the rain and I noticed sheets of water on the ground. A massive black storm cell was overhead and the thought crossed my mind ‘what would happen if the nose wheel aqua / hydro-planed during take off?’ Would we shoot off of the runway, or does the aerodynamics of the plane take care of all that? Take off was fine and after 10 minutes we flew away from the storm cell, climbing to blue skies. You do wonder though in these kind of situations.
As regards Yogyakarta airport, it has the roughest runway I’ve ever encountered. Feels like landing on the back road to Canggu. For travelers in Indonesia what can you do to be safer? That’s a hard one for sure. Garuda is the national carrier and should be safest.
