Putri Prameshwari
A Garuda Indonesia airplane at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. (Photo: Dimas Ardian, Bloomberg)
Government Confident EU Will Lift Flight Ban
The government and officials from the European Union on Thursday wrapped up evaluations on Indonesia’s airlines, which have been banned from flying to EU member countries since July 2007.
Herry Bhakti Singayuda, director general of civil aviation at the Ministry of Transportation, told reporters that Indonesia was optimistic the flight ban would be lifted in a few weeks as Indonesia had fulfilled all of the EU’s requirements.
“Technically, we have addressed all of their recommendations,” he said.
“We’ll just have to wait for the official announcement after their meeting in Brussels on June 30.”
In 2007, EU issued a ban on all Indonesian aircraft, restricting them from flying to Europe after a series of fatal crashes.
The ban was based on an audit by the International Civil Aviation Organization, which resulted in 69 recommendations for the country’s airlin es.
Julian Wilson, EU ambassador to Indonesia, in March said that three main points from the ICAO had yet to be addressed by the governme nt.
Transportation Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal had vowed to fulfill the three requirements before the next EU visit to Indonesia, which ended on Thursday.
The EU delegation could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
However, just as the government held talks with the EU regarding the lifting of the ban, an aircraft caught fire at flag carrier Garuda Indonesia’s maintenance facility in Tangerang, Banten, on Thursday afternoon.
Dwi Prasmono Adji, corporate secretary of Garuda Maintenance Facilities, said the right wing of the aircraft, a plane owned by Globe Air Services, caught fire when several technicians were dismantling i t.
“The airline has gone bankrupt and the plane was being taken apart so they can resell the pieces,” he said, adding that the plane had been parked at the facility for the past five years.
Herry said that the fire occurred because there was fuel on the pipes that were being cut.
“It happened outside a hangar and it did not harm anyone,” he said.
Herry said he did not believe the incident would affect the EU’s decision to lift the ban as they were not concerned with aircraft safety on a case by case basis.
This is not the first time an EU visit coincided with a plane incident in the country. During their visit last March, a McDonnel-Douglas plane operated by Lion Air was forced to crash land at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
The terminal buildings and gardens at Soekarno-Hatto Airport
An airliner has suffered an explosion and caught fire at Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia. The plane was being dismantled for spare parts and there were no injuries.

The plane was at a maintenance facility operated by Garuda Maintenance Facilities, a subsidiary of Garuda Indonesia. Ownership of the plane is unclear, with ''Tempo Interactive'' saying that reports indicated Thailand's Phuket Air owns the plane and the ''Jakarta Globe'' quoting GMF corporate secretary Dwi Prasmono Adji as saying the plane belonged to Global Air Services.

Adji also told the ''Globe'' that the aircraft has been parked at the airport for the last five years. "The airline has gone bankrupt and the plane was being taken apart so they can resell the pieces," and the fire occurred as several technicians cut the plane up, he said.

Herry Bhakti Singayuda, the Ministry of Transportation's director general of civil aviation, attributed the explosion to the presence of fuel in lines on the plane's right wing, which was being cut up. Singayuda also said the accident occurred outside a hanger and prevented injuries. 

GMF spokeswoman Siska Tobing said the explosion was heard at Terminal 1 of the airport, which serves Jakarta.

Singayuda and other Indonesian officials are currently in negotiations with the European Union in the hope of removing the nation's carriers from the list of airlines banned in the EU. This event is the second such coincidence, with the EU's last visit in March seeing one of Lion Air's McDonnel-Douglas planes crash-landing at the same airport.