EU Suggests Indonesian Airliners Boost Supervision on Safety

EU suggests Indonesian airliners boost supervision on safety

JAKARTA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) — Experts from the European Union suggested that Indonesian airliners boost supervision on security standard, and asked regulators to raise the capability and quantity of their staffs, director of the air transportation of Transport Ministry Budhi Mulyawan Suyitno said here Wednesday.

The director said that the statement was part of recommendationsubmitted by the experts after their visit to verify the Indonesian aviation from Nov. 5 to 9.

The experts suggested that airliners establish their own internal auditors to strengthen surveillance, said Mulyawan.

“Regulator also asked to increase the number and capability of their personnel in order to be able to maximally conduct the supervision,” he said.

Director of Operation of Garuda Indonesia airliner Arie Supari hailed the suggestion, saying that his company had long had the internal auditor.

“The internal auditor for safety fulfillment should be already set up (in all airliners) before the suggestion,” he said.

Garuda audit relied on international safety regulation standard(ICAO), Supari was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.

A group of EU’ experts have visited Indonesia and checked the safety standard of the country’s airlines ahead of a review of an EU ban on Indonesia’s carriers.

The European Union has prepared a report about the safety of the Indonesian airliners that would be delivered to the European Commission and used as a basis for deciding whether to lift the ban on Indonesian airlines imposed in June after a string of air accidents this year.

Indonesia would have an opportunity to present its measures to improve aviation safety to the European Commission, which plans toreview the ban at its next meeting.

The EU has banned 51 Indonesian airlines, including national airline Garuda.

The huge archipelago country has suffered from a series of airline accidents for the last 10 years, claiming thousands of lives.

At the beginning of this year, an Adam Air carrier plane with more than 100 people on board lost contact and disappeared in the waters of central Indonesia, and in March a Garuda Indonesia plane- 200 with 140 people on board overshot the runway in Yogyakarta province and burst into flames, killing 21 people.

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