Airport Shutdown by District Chief is Equivalent to Aircraft Piracy

Jakarta (Antara) - Aviation observer Alvin Lie attributes the shutdown of Turelelo airport in East Nusa Tenggara, by Ngada District Chief Marianus Sae, as being similar to aircraft piracy, since it was not done according to the law. "He has unlawfully taken over the airport. It is equivalent to aircraft hijacking," stated Alvin Lie on Monday. He emphasized that airport shutdown can only be done under four circumstances. The first one is related to flight safety such as bad weather, floods, and earthquakes and so on. The second is in event of any damage to the airport's infrastructure, such as defected runway or failure of the functioning of runway lights and so on. Third, the airport can be shutdown in a state of war, riots, terrorist threats and others. Fourth, in case of a visit by an important person with escorts, and who might need heavy security. "These shutdown reasons must be announced by the Aviation Traffic Flight officer through a notice to Airmen, NOTAM," explained Alvin. Alvin therefore believes that the Turelelo airport shutdown by Ngada District Chief due to the difficulty in purchasing a Merpati airline ticket cannot be justified. "This act violates Law No.1 of 2009 on Aviation and may be subjected to criminal offense because of endangering civil aviation flights," he noted. Earlier, Ngada District Chief Marianus Sae ordered the Civil Service Police Unit to shut down Ngada's airport in Flores Island on Saturday, Dec. 21, between 6:15 pm and 09:00 pm, after he was unable to purchase a Merpati airline plane ticket to return to Kupang. The shutdown resulted in the Merpati flight route Kupang - Bajawa (Ngada) carrying 54 passengers not being able to land at the Turelelo airport and return to the El Tari airport in Kupang. Airport authorities could not do much about the incident because they were outnumbered by the civil service police who had occupied the airport runway. Head of Eat Nusa Tenggara Transportation Department Bruno Kupok has proposed firm action against Ngada District Chief as his act had disturbed the flight's comfort and safety. (*)