An Indonesian police officer miraculously only required 17 stitches after he was hit in the head by a plane, while it was flying, over the weekend, an incident that has led to the pilot being investigated for possible criminal offense.
As reported by Kompas, officer Jackson Ferdinandus was tasked with loading fuel onto a fuel cargo plane operated by Pelita Air at the Aminggaru Omukia Airport in the Puncak Regency of Papua on Saturday. The plane — a small Cessna Caravan headed towards Timika — took off before the pilot immediately maneuvered back towards the Aminggaru airfield while flying dangerously close to the ground.
“Maybe the pilot wanted to pull off some acrobatics to impress a crowd. The plane flew over the runway and then tilted right to avoid a fuel truck and that’s when [the plane’s wing] hit me because it was flying very low, just a few centimeters off the runway,” Jackson told reporters.
The plane then commenced its journey to Timika, with the pilot reportedly unaware that his wing clipped a human being on the ground.
Jackson, meanwhile, was hospitalized and given 17 stitches on his head. More amazingly still, X-ray results showed that Jackson did not suffer any fractures to his cranium. He is being flown to Jakarta today for further treatment.
The Papua Police confirmed Jackson’s account of the incident and have detained the pilot, reportedly an American national, for negligence. He is not allowed to leave Papua while the investigation into the case is ongoing.
Pelita Air has apologized for the incident and promised to cover all of Jackson’s medical bills.
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