Fire at Polonia

Human neglect

The country’s aviation industry has suffered from a lot of problems in the last two months. First there was a report about a part of an airplane wing belonging to Batavia Air which fell off while the airplane already took off. Second, the European Union decided to keep its ban on all Indonesian airline companies to fly to the air space of its member countries. Third, the domestic terminal of the Polonia Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, went up in flames. And then, the turnpike leading to Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport was flooded.

Apparently, it is difficult to predict when the industry will really be free from serious problems that catch the attention of not only Indonesians, but the international community as well.

Among the recent incidents, obviously it was the fire at Polonia which made the most headlines. Fire broke out late on Dec. 1 at the airport of the country’s third largest city, destroying the domestic passenger terminal.

If we can still be glad of something, then it must be about the fact that international operations were not affected while domestic flights largely returned to normal on Dec. 2. as a temporary shelter was put up and tables set up as makeshift domestic check-in counters.

There was only one case of injury reported and the police immediately carried out a thorough investigation including on the possibility of an act of sabotage although so far it had only been said that electricity short circuit might be the cause.

Of course we all know that air travel has started to become a major form of domestic transportation in Indonesia, a sprawling nation of 235 million people spread over 17,500 islands.We might not be really prepared for the sudden surge in air travel demands. Still, it is difficult for us not to say that most—may be even all—of the accidents which had been taking place were related to human neglect.

And when we are talking about negligence, it does not mean that only the regulator, in this case the Transport Ministry, which must be held responsible. The operators and managers must also be made accountable to the airline passengers in particular, and the public in general.

Without sense of responsibility and accountability—that reflect the fact that we do value human lives—it is very likely that we will see more problems and accidents affecting the country’s aviation and its supporting industries.