Lion Air plane hits lamp post in Bengkulu
As the investigation into last week’s crash of a Lion Air jet into the Java Sea is ongoing, another aircraft belonging to the low-cost carrier was involved in an accident, as its wing rammed into a lamp post on the apron of Fatmawati Airport in Bengkulu on Wednesday evening.
Pramintohadi Sukarno, the Ministry of Transportation’s acting director general for air transportation, said Flight No. JT633 had been canceled and the pilots grounded after the accident.
“We grounded the aircraft and the pilots for an investigation,” Pramintohadi said in a statement, as quoted by tempo.co.
No injuries were reported in the incident that damaged the aircraft’s wing.
According to Pramintohadi, the Boeing 737-900 ER aircraft was scheduled to depart for Soekarno-Hatta International Airport near Jakarta at 6:20 p.m.
Lion Air spokesman Danang Mandala Prihantoro attributed the accident to wrong directions given to the pilot by ground control staff.
“The pilot only followed the instruction and directions from the Aircraft Movement Control (AMC) officer,” Danang said in a statement.
AMC personnel of the airport had been questioned by the authorities over the accident, he added.
Lion Air assigned another jet and different crew to fly the 145 passengers out at 10:48 p.m.
“The airplane arrived at Soekarno-Hatta airport at 11:50 p.m.,” Danang said.
As of Wednesday, a joint search team had identified 44 victims of the Lion Air JT610 crash.