Bali plane lands in sea; 22 injured

DENPASAR, Indonesia: An Indonesian plane carrying more than 100 passengers broke in two after missing the runway at Bali Airport yesterday and landing in the sea, leaving dozens injured but no fatalities.
The domestic flight ended with passengers screaming in terror as the aircraft hit the water after missing the runway at the popular resort island’s Denpasar airport, despite fine weather.
The plane, which was delivered to Lion Air just last month, came to rest partially submerged not far from the end of the runway, with inflatable slides deployed from the front exits and a gaping crack in the fuselage toward the rear. Passengers in life jackets could be seen in the water as police in rubber dinghies rowed out from the shore.
“The plane plunged into the sea at high speed,” said passenger Ignatius Juan Sinduk, 45, from his hospital bed in Denpasar where he was being treated for breathing difficulties after his chest was injured in the crash.
“Everybody screamed and water suddenly surged into the plane. Passengers panicked and scrambled for life jackets. Some passengers fell, some ran into others, it was chaos.
“I managed to grab one (a lifejacket) and slowly swam out of the plane and to the shore.”
An airport spokeswoman told AFP there were 45 passengers who needed hospital treatment. A hospital doctor said one female passenger had suffered a life-threatening brain hemorrhage. Worried relatives gathered at the head office of Lion Air in Jakarta.
Bali is a hugely popular holiday destination, welcoming millions of foreign tourists from around the world every year. Three foreigners were on board the flight — a Frenchman, a Singaporean woman and a Singaporean man, according to the airport’s head of communications.
Transport Ministry official Herry Bhakti initially said the plane overshot the runway, but later clarified his comments to say it landed straight in the water.
Officials said they were still determining exactly why it ditched. The airline’s general affairs director, Edward Sirait, said the plane was arriving from the city of Bandung in West Java province with 101 passengers — 95 adults, five children and a baby — and seven crew members on board.
“The plane broke into two pieces,” he said, adding that “judging from visual observation, the plane cannot be used any more.”
He said the plane was delivered to Lion Air in Indonesia on March 18 and had come “straight from the factory.” It started operations a week later and the pilot had flown for Lion Air for six years.
The little-known carrier launched 13 years ago with just one plane but has in recent times struck two of the world’s largest aircraft orders in a staggering $ 46 billion bet on Indonesia’s air transport boom.
Experts have pointed out that there is a lack of qualified pilots in Indonesia to fly the fast-increasing number of planes.
Between 2004 and 2006, Lion Air suffered a series of six accidents, in which no one died, and which all involved planes overshooting or missing the runway.