AP Exclusive: Pilots, experts say poor maintenance, rule-bending rife in Indonesia ' s budget airlines
(APW_ENG_20070112.0095)
1) Four years ago, young pilots lined up to join a new contender in Indonesia's booming aviation industry. But at least 20 left Adam Air within months, citing concerns that poor maintenance, corruption and rule-bending could lead to a crash -- charges the airline denied.
2) "I didn't want to wait until I had lost my friends," said Feisal Banser, 30, a former Adam Air flight captain who knew several crew members on a passenger jet that crashed Jan. 1 with 102 people on board.
3) Adam Air, founded by Agung Laksono, the speaker of the House of Representatives, is one of dozens of privately held airlines to have emerged since Indonesia started deregulating the industry in the late 1990s, bringing cheap air travel to the sprawling island nation.
4) Experts say there is no evidence budget airlines are less safe than full-fare competitors, but the rapid expansion of the sector has raised concerns that, in Indonesia at least, growth has outpaced the supply of trained aviation professionals, regulatory oversight, parts and ground infrastructure.
5) "The industry growth is so fast and it's not matched by the growth of human resources," said Dudi Sudibyo, an aviation expert called on to advise President Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono about Adam Air Flight KI-574, which disappeared on New Year's Day during what was supposed to be a short hop between islands.
6) "There are not enough regulators, flight inspectors or planes," he told The Associated Press.
7) The Adam Air pilot did not issue a Mayday before his plane fell off the radar in severe winds and with the flight data recorder still missing, experts do not know yet what happened.
8) But the crash off Sulawesi Island's western coast -- 16 months after a domestic Mandala Airlines passenger jet slammed into a bustling neighborhood on takeoff, killing at least 149 people -- put the spotlight back on the aviation industry.
9) Adam Air has a fleet of 17 aircraft that fly to popular tourist destinations like the resort island of Bali and the country's cultural hub of Yogyakarta, as wells as routes to Singapore and Malaysia.
10) Sutan Salahuddin was among 17 pilots who jointly resigned from Adam Air in May 2005 citing alleged safety concerns. They are now being sued by the airline, which alleges they violated their contracts and owe the company training fees, according to the West Jakarta District Court, which is expected to issue a ruling within weeks.
11) The demand for pilots with ratings for jets such as the widely used Boeing 737-400 is so great in Indonesia that companies often poach them from each other, sparking lawsuits to recover training costs.
12) Banser and Salahuddin alleged that as part of efforts to save costs, parts were replaced or recycled, regulatory officials were bribed, or pilots were pressured to break international safety regulations.
13) Salahuddin, who joined Adam Air at its inception, says he left after essential problems with his plane's inertial reference unit, a key navigational tool, were repeatedly left unfixed.
14) "I saw how Adam Air managed the maintenance of the aircraft and I resigned to protect my life and the life of the passengers," the 35-year-old said, adding that he was once asked by the company's operations chief to sign documents clearing a flight because there was no technical engineer at the airport.
15) "He called me in the cockpit and told me to fly, but the aircraft was not airworthy," said Salahuddin who refused to take off, enraging his managers.
16) Adam Air's director of safety and security, Capt. Hartono, denied the allegations and all others claiming that the company knowingly violated international safety guidelines.
17) "These are just rumors," he said, refusing to comment further.
18) No other officials from the airline could be reached, several employees are believed to have changed their phone numbers since last week's disaster, and large sections of corporate information on Adam Air's Web site have been removed.
19) The Center for Transportation and Logistics Studies, a private policy group, said Indonesia's discount airlines have increased the amount of time planes spend in the air, from 70 percent to up to 95 percent to boost profit margins, putting a crunch on servicing.
20) But there is not enough data available to say if that was jeopardizing safety, said Danang Parikesit, a leading researcher, though cost-cutting was "probably reducing the safety standard."
21) Bansar, one of the former pilots, said there was do doubt in his mind that was the case.
22) When mandatory aircraft part replacements were due, including essential navigational instruments, Adam Air officials "swapped with another aircraft, so as not to replace it ... then if they didn't find the part for another 30 days, they would swap it again," he claimed.
23) Banser said he flew on a plane with a cracked door handle "for several months" because there was no spare in stock. He asked an engineer if it was legal to fly with the defect and "he just smiled."
24) "Every time you flew, you had to fight with the ground staff and the management about all the regulations you had to violate," said Banser, who says he was grounded for a week in 2005 after refusing to fly because he would exceed the maximum of five daily takeoffs.
25) He said he gave in to demands that he fly the plane -- which also had a damaged window -- after managers agreed to pay each crew member an additional million rupiah (US$110) -- an offer Bansar accepted.
26) But eventually the pilot said he lost faith and quit.
27) Sudibyo, the aviation expert advising Yudhoyono, recalled a still-unexplained incident last year when one of its Boeing 737s went missing for hours following a navigation and communications breakdown, eventually making an emergency landing in Tambolaka, hundreds of kilometers (miles) from its final destination.
28) The airline broke several civil aviation regulations that day, including flying the plane away from the scene before an inspection by aviation authorities, he said. The pilot was fired, but government regulators would not say if the airline was fined, citing confidentiality regulations.
29) "The safety report on that company is a big question mark," Sudibyo said.
30) Iksan Tatang, Indonesia's top civil aviation official, said he had heard about the accusations, but could not respond in detail until reviewing formal complaints from the pilots.
31) "I invite the pilots to give me the information. Why did they give it to everybody, but not the regulators?" he asked. "As far as I know, we have to follow the international regulations."
32) Pilots said they regularly reported maintenance problems to technical staff, but were grounded or docked pay when they confronted managers. Filings on aviation incidents are confidential and several officials said they were unaware of any company ever having been held criminally libel in a fatal Indonesia transportation accident.
Worldwide shortage of pilots affecting flight safety, analysts say
(APW_ENG_20070717.0518)
1) As the Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737 approached Jakarta's main airport, veteran Capt. Marwoto Komar instructed his rookie co-pilot to extend the flaps to slow the plane for landing.
2) Seconds later, the Boeing slammed into the runway at double the normal landing speed, careened into a rice paddy and caught fire -- killing 21 people.
3) Initial findings from the probe into the March 7 crash suggest a misunderstanding between the pilot and his first officer may have contributed to the crash. And analysts say such apparent miscues are a troubling sign that the worldwide shortage of experienced pilots is starting to affect flight safety.
4) "Although all airline pilots are trained to the same standards ... there are certain intangibles that only come from experience," said Patrick Smith, a U.S.-based airline pilot and aviation writer. "(Like) skill and a solid familiarity with airline operations."
5) The pilot shortage is relatively recent. It is the result of extraordinary air traffic growth in the Persian Gulf, China and India; the rise of lucrative low-cost carriers in Europe and Asia; and the sustained recovery of the U.S. airlines from the industry recession caused by the 9/11 attacks.
6) "There is a giant sucking sound, luring pilots to rapidly expanding airlines such as Emirates and Qatar and the budget carriers," said William Voss, head of the Flight Safety Foundation.
7) "The result is that experienced pilots from developing countries in Asia and Africa are leaving in droves for places like the Gulf, and (those nations) are left with no choice but to recruit pilots fresh out of flight school."
8) Evidence of the exodus of pilots and mechanics from established airlines and national flag carriers abounds. And poaching is expected to intensify as Asian markets like China and India burgeon.
9) Around Asia, flyers from national airlines such as Garuda have deserted for better paying jobs with new and successful budget carriers, such as Malaysia's AirAsia, leaving companies no choice but to employ graduates fresh out of flight school.
10) In Europe, Belgium's largest carrier Brussels Airlines recently complained of losing an average of 10 captains a month to pilot-hungry airlines in the Gulf, and have requested government intervention.
11) In the United States, where thousands of veterans were laid off after 9/11 and left the industry, regional carriers have been giving jobs to first officers with considerably less experience than would have been required 15 years ago.
12) At some airlines, such as Northwest, pilot shortages have led to record-breaking flight cancellations in recent months. In the last full week of June, it canceled about 1,200 flights, or about 12 percent of its flight schedule. After that, the airline said it would continue recalling all of its furloughed pilots and hire additional pilots.
13) Figures released by International Air Transport Association show that global air travel will likely grow 4-5 percent a year over the next decade, though the aviation boom in India and China is expected to exceed 7 percent.
14) The Persian Gulf, the fastest growing region for both passengers and cargo, registered growth of 15.4 and 16.1 percent respectively in 2006. Reflecting this expansion, in the first half of this year Boeing and Airbus received a joint total of 1,100 new orders.
15) "You just need to look at the order books of these airlines, to understand that these are primarily expansion aircraft," said Gideon Ewers, a spokesman for the London-based, 105,000-member International Association of Airline Pilots Associations (IFALPA).
16) "Airlines such as Emirates, Qatar or Etihad are getting a new Airbus 330 or Boeing 777 each month, which means they also need to take in pilots at a phenomenal rate," he said.
17) That helps to explain why airlines everywhere are aggressively recruiting pilots. India and China alone will need about 4,000 new pilots a year to cope with their growth.
18) By comparison, Germany's Lufthansa -- one of the world's largest airlines -- employs a total of just over 4,000 pilots.
19) On average, airlines need 30 highly trained pilots available for each long-haul aircraft in their inventory. For short-haul planes they need less, between 10-18 flyers.
20) Traditionally, new pilots come up through flight training academies with a strict regimen of ground school and 50-60 hours flying for a Private Pilots License, then 250 hours plus a battery of tests for a Commercial Pilots License, which includes instrument and multi-engine ratings. A total of 1,500 hours of flight are required for a license that would qualify a pilot for the support seat.
21) According to the latest available figures, there are 1.2 million pilots worldwide. But most hold private or commercial licenses while just 14 percent have the professional Airline Transport Pilots License that allows holders to fly for airlines.
22) "(In the past) three moon landings and X-ray vision couldn't guarantee you a job flying a turboprop," Voss said jokingly.
23) In an effort to retain experienced pilots, aviation authorities in some nations -- including the United States -- are considering extending the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65 years.
24) "It makes no sense to force experienced, qualified and healthy pilots to retire while airlines are scrambling to fill those seats," Voss said.
25) Other airlines plan to moderate their standards, allowing new graduates to co-pilot with experienced captains. But this has placed greater stress on the command pilot who must fly multi-leg segments while monitoring a copilot's performance, rather than sharing the flying load with the first officer.
26) "The reality is that when airlines are short of pilots they may be tempted to roster their pilots up to the maximum flight time allowed by regulations," Ewers said. "Naturally, fatigue may then become an element."
27) Paradoxically, the worldwide pilot shortages are also making it harder to properly train new pilots. Flight schools now complain they are understaffed as instructors get hired by regional carriers who have lost pilots to expanding airlines.
28) The critical shortfall has led the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization to introduce a shortcut training scheme -- the Multi-Crew Pilot License -- enabling airlines to drastically reduce both cost and training time. In this program, a trainee, supervised by a pilot and co-pilot, will fly a wide-bodied jet within 45 weeks, about what it takes to obtain a driving license in most European countries.
29) Some pilots' associations have expressed concern that such quick-fix training schemes, where candidates don't accrue any solo flying, are driven by considerations that ignore the broader safety issues.
30) "The idea of some kid flying a 737 around Africa with 300 hours of total time is a bit scary," Smith noted.
Pilot error cited in report on deadly Indonesian jetliner crash
(APW_ENG_20080325.0203)
1) An investigation has blamed pilot error and a faulty navigation device for a jetliner crash in Indonesia last year that killed all 102 people on board.
2) The National Transportation Safety Committee said in its report Tuesday there had been 154 recurring defects in the Boeing 737's navigation system in the months before the crash and that the airline had failed to properly address the complaints.
3) The plane was operated by Adam Air, an Indonesian carrier that last week had its license revoked because of its poor safety record.