A thought for the budget traveller

Rell Hayes - Budget traveller

On March 7th, 2007, 21 people died on Garuda flight 200. It is amazing that the pilot who ignored 15 flight control warnings, yet still continued to land an aeroplane, that was in excess of 79 knots over the recommended landing speed, was ultimately exonerated by the High Court of Indonesia. How the hell can that be? 21 people died yet this man walked away a free man.

What was also shocking about that accident, was that due the plane crashing off the airport grounds into a rice paddy, no fire truck or for that matter, any emergency vehicles at Jogjakarta airport could get to the flaming wreck.

That crash brought about the banning of Garuda flying into any of the EU countries. it was a watershed moment for Garuda Airlines, who have since moved on, changed their procedures, improved their safety, and become a shining light out of the tragedy of flight 200.
However, over 1 million Australians travel to Indonesia every year. What they do not realise is, that although the national airline may have improved its safety record, the airports and the government agencies that run those airports, and the safety programs, really have not changed. Everyday locals and tourist land at Indonesian airports that are surrounded by rice paddies or water or hills, and those airports do not have the rescue equipment that is capable accessing a plane that might be on fire or passengers that are trapped in such places, only meters from many runways.

With the huge rise in budget Airlines around the world, what passengers do not realise is, that there is a greater number of less experienced pilots flying planes today. These pilots are flying into airports that do not have modern and effective safety equipment. The fear for us flying in seats on those planes is not, will another situation happen, where a pilot freezes, whilst ignoring warnings, like the pilot of Garuda flight 200, but when will it next happen? I do know that I do not want to be sitting in the plane, that careens off a runway, into a rice Paddy or an area that is inaccessible to the safety equipment.

Perhaps next time we are booking a cheap Bali flight, we should ask ourselves would it really be that cheap, if we are on a flight, where one of these lesser experienced pilots got into trouble and crashed? The sad reality of plane crashes is; that lots of people die in them. You are damned lucky, if you get to walk away from a plane crash.
A wise man once told me that “it’s a great flight if the landings match the number of take offs”