First A380 landing in Jakarta, Indonesia. 4-May-2012

I was shocked to suddenly see this on my Twitter, Facebook, local forums, etc.

The A380 has landed in Jakarta 

Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (WIII/CGK)

9V-SKC in CGK

Quick calls and searches, found the story to be true.

9V-SKC was performing Singapore Airlines flight SQ232 from Sydney to Singapore when a passenger became ill, requiring a medical diversion. The aircraft landed at CGK at 0846UTC at runway 25R, and parked at taxiway WC1 between NP2 and NPW, where the passenger was evacuated. Aircraft then made a U-turn at NPW onto WC2 for NP2 and N6, where it departed runway 07L safely at 0930UTC to continue to Singapore (revised estimated arrival currently at 1130UTC).

This friend of mine was very happy to see the A380 in Jakarta
(photo by: Ignatius Suryadi)

Aircraft parked at WC1 instead of a parking stand so that it does not require pushing back to continue. However, A380 capable pushback trucks and towbar are available at the airport, to provide ground handling capability for diversions requiring a parking stand. In this occasion, a scissor lift truck (like the ones for catering) performed the passenger evacuation.

Use this chart to find where the aircraft landed, parked, and took off.
(Chart by: Gerry Soejatman)

Whilst the aircraft can be serviced at Jakarta and suitable parking spots exist for the A380, no regular A380 schedules has been made due to lack of boarding gate space capability at Terminal 2D and 2E (international terminals), and apart from the remote parking areas, only parking stand D11 (gate D1) is A380 capable  in terms of size.

Dreamers within the Indonesian aviation community have long awaited the arrival of the A380 in Indonesia. Many cite reasons as ridiculous as "airport runways cannot handle the A380" to "everyone should fly the A380 to Jakarta"... but I'm sure a lot are shocked to see the A380 finally land in Jakarta.

Unfortunately, the ill passenger had passed away. Ironically, he was an Indonesian who was likely to be flying SYD-SIN-CGK anyways. It's bittersweet congratulations to 9V-SKC as the first A380 to ever land in Indonesia. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts, it's not always a happy ending. To the wife of the ill passenger (who was travelling with him) and his family, my condolences.


Edit 1200UTC:
Pax heart attack reported over Bali, Jakarta was nearest suitable airport from Bali for the A380.

UPDATE: Batavia A320 overrun at BPN 12MAR12

EU Ban exempted carrier Batavia A320 runway excursion

On 19th April, Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Commission has released its recommendations for the Batavia Air A320 PK-YVE overrun at Balikpapan that occurred on 12 March 2012. My summary translation of the finding can be found later in this article (with link to source).

What I find disturbing:

• Batavia Air is an airline that is exempted by the EU Ban imposed on Indonesia.
• Aircraft has had problems with nose wheel steering and brake systems since November 2011.
• This incident is the second runway excursion in recent months.
• Airbus has issued recommendations to Batavia Air on fixing the issue prior to the aircraft flying again.
• Batavia Air did not complete the work outlined in the Airbus recommendation before its next revenue flight.
• The combination of brake servo valves installed in the aircraft did not comply with Airbus Service Bulletin issued.
• A Key personnel holding key holding the Technical Director position at the airline was different from the one specified in the airline's Operations Specification document approved by the DGCA.

Credibility of EU Ban and EU Ban Exemption questioned

The EU Ban Exemption for Batavia has raised questions amongst the industry, and the credibility of the EU Ban and its exemptions in particular. With the country now focusing more on raising the FAA Country Category II status back to Category I, the NTSC investigation into the PK-YVE excursion will certainly raise more questions on how Batavia Air received its exemption from the EU Ban, whilst others such as Lion Air who has put in a great effort into safety improvements (with a lot of help from Boeing and ATR), remain in the ban.

Indonesia now has no problems in admitting that the EU Ban and FAA Country Category II "sentences" were caused by safety deficiencies, but seeing which airlines got on the exemption list and which airline remains on the country blacklist is causing a lot of grievances, including allegation of unfairness and political favouring by the EU. The slap in the face for the EU Ban is Indonesia's decision to literally, "screw the EU Ban and let's focus on getting our FAA rating back to Country Category I", and to work with other countries regulators and safety agencies such as Civil Aviation Safety Australia (CASA), Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB), and even regulators from individual EU member countries. Work with EASA continues but without looking at the EU Transportation and Energy Commission's work.

I guess the conclusion of the country's new direction in safety improvements and the findings into this serious incident investigation is, "yes, we got problems, we're solving it, but we'll get help from those we can trust, screw your ban!"

Summary of findings: PK-YVE operated BTV2911 from Denpasar to Balikpapan with 2 pilots, 5 flight attendants and 178 passengers (including 1 engineer and 1 pilot not on duty). Aircraft landed on 0327UTC at runway 25 Sepinggan Airport, Balikpapan (BPN/WARL). At around 150 meters before the runway end, aircraft veered to the right and pilot attempted to steer the aircraft back onto the centerline. Aircraft stopped at the stopway beyond the runway 07 threshold, and all 4 wheels of the main landing gears sunk 30-40cm into the asphalt. Airport was reopened with a NOTAM advising that the runway usable length was reduced to 2040 meters. Aircraft evacuation was delayed because the required A320 main landing gear jacks had to be sent from Jakarta. Aircraft was moved onto the apron at 1725UTC on 13MAR, and the reduced usable runway length NOTAM was terminated/revoked. Early investigations have found that PK-YVE has suffered from steering and brake system problems since November 2011.  Aircraft was found to have 2 different sets of brake services: 2 units of new model brake servo valve (p/n C20374000-2) and 2 units of older brake model servo valve (C201033500). Servo valve combination is found to be in Non-compliance to Airbus service bulletin (A320-3201089 revision 3) issues 20 September 1995, which when non-identical brake servo are instaled, mandated operators to use 3 new model servo valves (C20374000-2) and 1 old model servo valve (C20103100, C20103100-1 or C20103500). Early NTSC investigations have found that between the aircraft being moved off the runway and the repairs done by Batavia engineers, poor coordination was shown and is a result of poor understanding of procedures and lack of effectiveness of field key personnel. The person holding the Technical Director position at the time of the incident was different from the person specified in the Operations Specification document approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (issued 18 January 2012). The serious incident is the second runway excursion suffered by PK-YVE in recent months, the first one occured on 7 February 2012 at Sentani Airport, Jayapura (DJJ/WAJJ). The NTSC noted that since the February excursion, Airbus has provided several subsequent checks for PK-YVE to Batavia before the aircraft can be flown again. It appears that Batavia has deemed the problem solved as the aircraft maintenance computers had not reported any faults. Another finding suggests that the engineering personnel may not have understood the pilot report with regards to faults in the brake system. The investigation reveals that Batavia has only partially achieved/completed part of the Airbus recommendations, and the work outlined in the recommendations remained incomplete by the time of the Balikpapan excursion. Summary of recommendations: The NTSC has issued the following recommendations: Batavia Air: To obey and execute recommendations made by the manufacturer on brake and nosewheel steering systems. Improve and ensure the control system on the aircraft configuration remain and continue to comply with the Illustrated Parts Catalogue, Service Bulletins, and recommendations issued. Ensure the status and conditions of the manuals and procedures to be valid and updated and can be accessed by personnel when required, especially in outstations. Balikpapan Airport Review the Emergency Response Plan on handling of incident/serious incident/accident. To cooperate with other agencies and airlines within the airport environment to provide mutual assistance and support in handling incidents/serious incidents/accidents. To include obstacle location and height when issuing NOTAMs. DGCA - Airworthiness Directorate Ensure that Principle Maintenance Inspectors me more aware and understand aircraft repetitive problems. Ensure that Key Personnel duties are carried out by persons specified in the valid Operation Specification Ensure that operators have better control systems over aircraft configuration and manual status. DGCA - Air Navigation Directorate To include obstacle height and position when issuing NOTAMs caused by obstacles, to be used as reference when calculating aircraft operational performance Source: Immediate Safety Recommendations - Serious Incident Airbus A320-231 PK-YVE Balikpapan Sepinggan Airport 12 March 2012 - National Transportation Safety Commission (Rekomendasi Segera Kejadian Serius Pesawat Airbus A320-231 Registrasi PK-YVE Di Bandara Sepinggan, Balikpapan, Tanggal 12 Maret 2012, KNKT/001/3/IV/REK.KU/2012)

Garuda 737-800 vs a 1kg eagle - Palangkaraya 21 APR 12

The dented nose of PK-GEM
From http://yfrog.com/ocpzbobj   

Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737-800 PK-GEM was operating GA550 into Palangkaraya airport on the morning of Saturday 21 April 2012. The aircraft was on final approach when it hit a low flying eagle. The aircraft landed safely.

The 1 kilogram eagle was killed instantly but was later found. The aircraft damage was limited to the nose radome. Passengers onboard only remembered hearing a thud close to touchdown.

Borneo TV footage at PKY airport

By 3pm, the aircraft was still being repaired, and it didn't leave until 630 am Sunday, as a ferry flight. Several passengers were disappointed due to the decision to make them wait all day, only for the flight to be cancelled.  Cause of the prolonged delay is reported to be a puncture in addition to the dent with the radome (although I think they were just waiting to get approvals for the post repair flight). Passengers were given a choice whether to remain overnight, get a refund, be transferred onto another flight, or catch another flight from Banjarmasin to the southeast.

It was a classical case of myth versus reality. The giant mythical eagle versus a real life eagle, to which both lost. The disturbing thing is, for 2 weekends in a row, Garuda has suffered rather bizarre setbacks. Only last weekend, a baggage container belonging to another airline went astray, hit and punctured another Garuda 737-800 in Singapore.

Time for the venerable duct/
speed tapes.

What is interesting is the BorneoTV footage, showing the nose radome dent disappeared, and the venerable duct tape or speed tape was administered. If a birdstrike does not dent the radome, then there should be no issues (but yes, check the pitot-static system to make sure that they're clear from leftovers from the bird), but the foto on top of this blog shows the dent. Did someone just simply knock/hammer the radome back?

But before anyone screams that this is outrageous, the aircraft flew back to Jakarta with no passengers, for some real repairs.

Interesting speed tape application

All photos from "Protespublik/yfrog.com" and BorneoTV.

Garuda's collision with containers in Singapore - Sometimes you just can't win!

PK-GFI and the container after the collision at SIN

Last week, Garuda Indonesia's 737-800 PK-GFI suffered a mishap when a baggage container belonging to Singapore Airlines collided with the parked aircraft. The aircraft was on a ground turnaround and parked at the gate awaiting the next flight scheduled for 0900 local time as GA841 to Denpasar, Bali. The aircraft was immediately grounded, causing 50 passengers having to be flown to Bali with other flights.

The offending container and trolley

Puncture just above the static port

The aircraft skin was punctured just aft of door L1, and very nearly hit a static port just below the puncture (which would have caused a lot more in repair bills).

A very expensive 7 inches?

To illustrate the depth of the puncture, the photo on the left was also circulating around the internet. The depth of the puncture is estimated at 7 inches, and quite likely that the pressure hull has been compromised.

News on the incident quickly disappeared from the front of various news sites (including aviation sites), but the aircraft is still undergoing repairs in Singapore.




This evening (21 April 2012), the aircraft was seen at the remote apron just off Terminal 1 in Singapore, with its forward fuselage coved by a white "tent", presumably still having repairs on it. A photo was tweeted by TCG_Aviation, who was on a flight inbound from Kuala Lumpur who tweeted:

@TCG_Aviation: What is Garuda's 737 white cover doing over forward fuselage at SIN Airport? #airchat http://pic.twitter.com/8qijm5HT

Photo:

Photo by: TCG_Aviation

We can see that the aircraft is covered by some form of tent, obviously to hide the repair work that is going on behind the covers. PK-GFI (msn 36805) is leased from GECAS and was first flown on 7 October 2010 and delivered to Garuda 2 weeks later. 

What I find interesting about this incident is the statement by Garuda Indonesia's VP Corporate Quality, Safety & Environment Management, Capt. Novianto Herupratomo, who in a recent seminar in Jakarta stated that despite improving safety over the past decade, two of the airline's most serious safety issues that remain in 2011 were Near Collisions (TCAS RAs) and Ramp/Ground Incidents.

Unfortunately, those two factors are not 100% within the airline's control as this incident shows. 

External threats like Near-Collisions and
Ramp/Ground incidents continue
to challenge Garuda

The safety figures continue to improve
despite continue external safety threat factors

No matter how hard you try, sometimes, you just can't win when bad luck comes along. However, I cannot help but remember that this is not the first time a ground incident has happened for Garuda in Singapore, and I dare say that Singapore seems to be the airport outside Indonesia that has had the most ground mishaps for Garuda. 

But I despite all this, I can't help but wonder, who's going to pay the bill this time?

Batavia A320 overran at Balikpapan Airport

On Monday 12 March 2012, a Batavia Air Airbus A320-200 PK-YVE peforming Y6-2911 from Denpasar to Hangzhou or Guangzhou (charter flight) via in Balikpapan, landed in Balikpapan and overran the runway at 11:31 local time (03:31 UTC)

It is unclear whether the aircraft was due to make a stop in Balikpapan or had diverted there. The aircraft overran after landing at runway 25. Photos showing the aircraft at the overrun area just beyond the threshold of runway 07 shows the flaps in the up position but cannot be determined if the flaps were retracted after coming to a stop.

Wheels were sunk.

No injuries or damage occured but the airport was closed for at least 2 hours because the aircraft tires had sunk in the softer overrun area asphalt. This was similar to the Lion Air occurence a few months ago, where it overran whilst landing at runway 25 and then was stuck because the wheels had also sunk.

The airport reopened with a NOTAM showing a 400 meter reduced length restriction to allow for obstacle clearance as the aircraft remained in the same position for a few hours.

Photo taken from an aircraft approaching 07 after airport reopened
but prior to removal of the aircraft, making it "interesting".

 All photos were found on the net using. Copyright holders of the photos are unknown.

Follow on Blog Update on the incident can be found HERE