2 Garuda Indonesia Jets' Head On Taxiway Incident Explained
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13 December 2019 15:00 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Head of Soekarno-Hatta Airport’s authority office, Herson, explained the chronology of a recent incident between two Garuda Indonesia airliners, GA 649 and GA 264, that found themselves facing each other at the airport’s taxiway.
"PK-GMH ex. GA-649 experienced a taxiway incursion head-on at the NP2 taxiway with PK-GRR/GA-264," said Herson to Tempo today.
According to Herson, the incident happened on Thursday, December 12, at 03:26 UTC when Garuda’s flight GA-649 from Ternate had just landed at Soekarno-Hatta found that it was facing another plane head-on in the same trajectory with Garuda’s GA 264 set to depart to Banyuwangi. This incident happened at the airport’s taxiway.
According to Herson, the flight from Ternate landed and vacated from runway RWY07L from taxiway N4. The pilot was then instructed by ATC to enter NC4 and NP1 while holding short NC3. However, the pilot of the GA-649 entered taxiway NP2.
“At that same moment, GA-264 was already at the NP2 taxiway that suddenly made both Garuda Indonesia airplanes faced each other head-on,” said Herson.
The Garuda GA-649 was eventually towed out of taxiway NP2 to enable the other Garuda Indonesia jet to continue its journey and taxied-out. Herson assured the incident did not affect any flight schedules in one of Asia’s busiest airports.
JONIANSYAH HARDJONO
