Indonesia suspends 4 airliners for lack of safety
15/10/2008 17:38
The Indonesian transport ministry has suspended four charter airliners due
to lack of safety standard, spokesman of the ministry Bambang Ervan said in
Jakarta today.
The move is one of the efforts to boost flight safety in the
archipelago country, which is now struggling to exit from the European Union
(EU) travel ban which has been imposed since July 6 last year.
Auditors from
the ministry found that managements of the four airliners, Pura Wisata Baruna,
Sampoerna Air Nusantara, Dabi Air Nusantara and Atlas Deltasatya, failed to
comply with minimum safety standard.
"The companies don't meet with the
aspects of standard safety," he told Xinhua.
The spokesman said that after
the suspension took affect on Oct. 7, the airliners were given three months to
improve their safety standard, otherwise their Air Operator's Certificates (AOC)
would be frozen.
"Should within another 6-month the airliners still fail to
meet with the safety standard, their business licenses will be deregistered," he
said.
Plane is a favorite transport means in the sprawling archipelago
country, but lack of safety standard has triggered many accidents, killing
hundreds of lives.
It led the European Union to impose air travel ban on 51
airliners in Indonesia. The ban was then extended on Nov. 28 last year after the
EU revoked its air travel restriction on the Pakistan International Airlines
(PIA) and on the Blue Wing Airlines of Surinam.
Xinhua
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