Pesawat Trigana Air Angkut 54 Orang Hilang Kontak di Papua
Indonesian Airliner Carrying 54 Goes Missing over Papua
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
SEBUAH PESAWAT yang mengangkut 54 orang Indonesia hilang pada Minggu setelah kehilangan kontak dengan menara pengawas udara (ATC) dalam penerbangan rute pendek di tengah cuaca buruk di Papua, kata otoritas terkait. Upaya pencarian dilakukan untuk menemukan pesawat dihentikan sementara dan akan dilanjutkan pada Senin pagi.
Pesawat milik Trigana Air Service terbang dari Jayapura, ibukota Papua menuju Oksibil setelah kehilangan kontak dengan bandara Oksibil, kata Kepala Biro Humas Kementerian Perhubungan, JA Barata. Disebutkan, tidak ada indikasi bahwa pilot telah melakukan panggilan darurat, katanya.
Pesawat ATR42-300 twin turboprop mengangkut 49 penumpang dan lima awak yang dijadwalkan menempuh perjalanan 42 menit, katanya. Lima anak-anak, termasuk tiga bayi, berada di antara penumpang.
Cuaca buruk di dekat Oksibil, akibat hujan lebat, angin kencang dan kabut, ketika pesawat kehilangan kontak dengan bandara beberapa menit sebelum dijadwalkan mendarat, kata Susanto, pejabat di Badan SAR Nasional (Basarnas).
Sebuah pesawat telah dikirim untuk mencari pesawat yang hilang, tapi pencarian itu kemudian ditangguhkan akibat keterbatasan jarak pandang dan cuaca buruk, kata Susanto. Operasi pencarian akan dilanjutkan pada Senin pagi, katanya.
Sebagian besar wilayah Papua tertutup hutan lebat dan deretan pegunungan. Beberapa pesawat yang jatuh di masa lalu tidak pernah ditemukan.
Media asing Associated Press yang dikutip MailOnline menyatakan bisnis penerbangan Indonesia kerap didera kecelakaan pesawat. Negara luas berpenduduk 250 juta yang tersebar di sekitar 17 ribu pulau menjadi salah satu pasar penerbangan yang berkembang paling cepat di Asia, namun perkembangan bisnis penerbangan terkendala jumlah pilot yang mumpuni, tenaga mekanik, pengendali lalu lintas udara, dan kualitas teknologi di bandar udara untuk memastikan keselamatan penerbangan.
Sebagaimana diketahui, sejak 2007 sampai 2009, Uni Eropa melarang maskapai penerbangan Indonesia terbang ke Eropa karena masalah keamanan.
Desember lalu, 162 penumpang di pesawat jet AirAsia tewas ketika pesawat jatuh ke Laut Jawa karena dihantam badai dalam perjalanan dari Surabaya, kota terbesar kedua di Indonesia menuju Singapura.
Kecelakaan tersebut merupakan salah satu dari lima kecelakaan yang diderita oleh maskapai penerbangan Asia dalam rentang 12 bulan, termasuk Malaysia Airlines MH370, yang hilang pada Maret 2014 mengangkut 239 orang dalam penerbangan dari Kuala Lumpur ke Beijing.
AN INDONESIAN airliner carrying 54 people was missing Sunday after losing contact with ground control during a short flight in bad weather in the country's mountainous easternmost province of Papua, officials said. A search for the plane was suspended and will resume Monday morning.
The Trigana Air Service plane was flying from Papua's provincial capital, Jayapura, to the Papua city of Oksibil when it lost contact with Oksibil's airport, said Transportation Ministry spokesman Julius Barata. There was no indication that the pilot had made a distress call, he said.
The ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane was carrying 49 passengers and five crew members on the scheduled 42-minute journey, he said. Five children, including three infants, were among the passengers.
The weather was poor near Oksibil, with heavy rain, strong winds and fog, when the plane lost contact with the airport minutes before it was scheduled to land, said Susanto, the head of Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency.
A plane was sent to look for the missing airliner, but the search was later suspended due to darkness and bad weather, said Susanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. The search operation will continue Monday morning, he said.
Much of Papua is covered with impenetrable jungles and mountains. Some planes that have crashed there in the past have never been found.
Indonesia has had its share of airline woes in recent years. The sprawling archipelago nation of 250 million people and some 17,000 islands is one of Asia's most rapidly expanding airline markets, but is struggling to provide enough qualified pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers and updated airport technology to ensure safety.
From 2007 to 2009, the European Union barred Indonesian airlines from flying to Europe because of safety concerns.
Last December, all 162 people aboard an AirAsia jet were killed when the plane plummeted into the Java Sea as it ran into stormy weather on its way from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, to Singapore.
That disaster was one of five suffered by Asian carriers in a 12-month span, including Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which went missing in March 2014 with 239 people aboard during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
