Garuda's "Singing Pilot"

Beware Garuda Airlines:

But, despite finding flaws with the pilot's actions - including that he ignored 15 "very loud" alarms to continue with his unstabilised landing approach at excessively high speed and steep descent - it did not recommend any criminal action.

The plane overran the runway in Yogyakarta, central Java, crossed a road, and hit an embankment before exploding into flames in a rice paddy field, 252m from the runway.

The report revealed details of the final minutes of the flight, obtained through analysis of the plane's black boxes.

It found the pilot was "singing" during the approach, below 10,000 feet and prior to reaching 4,000 feet, which was "not in accordance with the Garuda Basic Operations Manual policy for a sterile cockpit below 10,000 feet".

"The pilot was probably emotionally aroused because his conscious awareness moved from the relaxed mode "singing" to the heightened stressfulness of the desire to reach the runway by making an excessively steep and fast, unstabilised approach," the report said.

It found the pilot, who was uninjured, later "fixated" on landing the aircraft, ignoring the 15 loud alarms in the cockpit and two calls from his copilot to abort the landing.

However, there were clues that he realised things were amiss prior to the crash, commenting "Oh, there is something not right", the report said.

"The pilot in command's intention to continue to land the aircraft, from an excessively high and fast approach, was a sign that his attention was channelised during a stressful time," the report said.

The report found the copilot also failed to follow company procedures that required him to take control of the aircraft when he saw the pilot repeatedly ignore the warnings.

Gaurda records showed no evidence that the company provided simulator training for flight crews covering required responses to the warning sirens.

A response:

IT IS hard to describe how sick I felt when I read those words - "pilot ignored 15 alarms and pleas to abort a landing" - yesterday morning.

At once feelings of emptiness and horror filled me. How senseless, I thought, was this act by a Garuda pilot that resulted in the deaths of 21 people, including two friends, and which took my legs, shattered my spine, and burnt 60 per cent of my body.

I relive that horrific landing every day of my life. I hear the screams rising up from my throat as it became apparent to me and my fellow passengers something was not right. We knew we were going too fast, we knew we were going to crash, we thought we were going to die. And many of us did.

There must be a criminal investigation into the actions of the pilot and co-pilot who between them crashed that plane carrying hundreds of people at the airport at Yogyakarta in March. Manslaughter charges must be laid against these people.

It boils my blood to hear of the unwillingness of the Indonesian crash investigators to co-operate with police and hand over the relevant evidence so they can pursue the two pilots.

People died. Lives were ruined. Somebody must be held accountable. We now have a report that implicitly points the finger at the two people who were in charge of that aircraft. They must be dealt with.