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Indonesia Merpati Airlines Crashes Killing All 27 Onboard By Daniel Baxter |
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May 9, 2011 - On Saturday a Merpati Nusantara Airlines
Flight 8968 on a domestic flight from Sorong, West
Papua, Indonesia, to Kaimana, West Papua, Indonesia
crashed killing all 21 passengers and a flight crew of
6. The Xian MA60 aircraft crashed off the coast of West
Papua on approach to Kaimana Airport in heavy rain.
The Chinese made turboprop Xian MA60 aircraft was
manufactured by China Aviation Industry Corporation I
with a registration PK-MZK had entered service in
October 2010, and had flown for a total of 615 hours at
the time of the crash.
Reports indicate that Flight was on its final approach, after holding for fifteen minutes, to the Kaimana Airport at about 1400 local time (0500 UTC) when it crashed into the water about 1,600 feet from the runway. |
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Weather conditions at the time were rain and fog with visibility
under a mile under dark skies.
Indonesia officials report the aircraft slammed into the
water breaking up into two pieces and sank to a depth of 100
feet. There were 27 people on board the aircraft, of which 21
were passengers, four were crew, and two were unspecified
technicians. Rescue teams located 15 bodies floating on the
water and the remaining passengers were trapped inside the
wreckage.
Merpati Nusantara Airlines is an airline based in Jakarta,
Indonesia. It is a major domestic airline operating scheduled
services to more than 25 destinations in Indonesia, as well as
scheduled international services to East Timor and Malaysia. Its
main base is Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta. The
word merpati is Indonesian for "dove", and Nusantara is a
geographic term referring to parts of Indonesia.
Indonesia's safety record has been in the spotlight recently
after a series of accidents, in 2007 the European Commission
banned all of Indonesia's airlines including the national
carrier Garuda in the European Union. However, as of April
2011 Indonesia carriers are allowed back into the EU with
the exception of
six passenger carriers, Merpati Nusantara Airlines
remains on it.
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