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Airline 'ignored safety checks'

2007-01-19 07:14

Jakarta - A former pilot of Indonesian carrier Adam Air alleged on Thursday the airline's management had often forced pilots to fly aircraft lacking safety clearance, or with malfunctioning parts.

An Adam Air Boeing 737-400 with 102 people on board went missing on New Year's Day.

Sutan Salahuddin, who worked for Adam Air for 18 months, said management in 2005 twice overrode his objections to flying aircraft that had not met safety standards.

"There was no maintenance check by engineers but I was forced to sign the maintenance log," Salahuddin, 36, said of one instance when he said he was forced to fly from Jakarta to the North Sumatra city of Medan.

In the second instance, one of the company owners directly ordered him to fly an aircraft to Padang in West Sumatra, despite his objections following a malfunction in the navigation back-up system.?

"I was called directly by the owner," he said, adding that the practice was very unusual.

"I was really scared," he told journalists, when he flew the planes on these occasions.

Salahuddin was waiting at the West Jakarta court for the verdict in a three-billion-rupiah ($329 000) suit Adam Air filed against him for alleged breach of his four-year contract.

The company is demanding he repay the three billion rupiah it spent on pilot training. Another pilot is also being sued.

Salahuddin is one of 16 former Adam Air pilots who quit the airline.

- AFP

inside news24

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