Pilots in Jakarta have been protesting over the arrest of Marwoto Komar, the Garuda national airline pilot accused of causing the 2007 plane crash, which killed 21 people. There are, of course, two sides of the story.
The pilot has been under police supervision since the crash, BBC reports. The chairman of the Indonesian Pilots Federation, Manotar Napitupulu, said that the “criminalization of pilots will put pilots under pressure in carrying out their job”. The federation has been receiving support from pilots’ groups around the globe.
On the other hand, the Indonesia’s National Transport Safety Committee said that the pilot ignored 15 warnings against landing and approached the runway too fast. He has been charged with five offenses, including negligence causing deaths and the destruction of an aircraft and could face more than five years in jail.
This is a tough one. I don’t envy the responsibility pilots have over human lives. Yet, not even pilots are immune from making bad judgments…