Dimas Rio, a senior pilot working for Indonesian airline Lion Air, may face heavy sanctions after he allegedly disobeyed flight safety regulations by letting his wife and toddler inside the plane’s cockpit during a flight.
The allegation came to light thanks to a Facebook post that went viral on Wednesday. In it, the poster, Citra Rienanti, wrote that she was a passenger on Lion Air flight JT 015 from Denpasar to Jakarta, which was piloted by Dimas on Tuesday. She noticed that a woman and her toddler from row 1 left their seat and walked towards the front end of the cabin in the middle of the flight. At first, she thought that they were going to the lavatory, but eventually became suspicious when they didn’t return after around 20 minutes.
https://www.facebook.com/citra.rinanty/posts/10155292284703149?match=ZGltYXMgcmlvLGxpb24gYWly
Citra then brought the matter up to a flight attendant, who told her that the woman had gone to see her husband, who was the captain of the flight, in the cockpit along with their toddler. Citra told the flight attendant to pass along a message of her disapproval to the captain, after which his wife soon left the cockpit and confronted Citra, accusing her of sticking her nose where it didn’t belong and saying she was oblivious to flight safety regulations.
The argument continued after the plane landed, with Captain Dimas himself trying to reassure Citra and her husband that passengers may enter the cockpit at the discretion of the flight’s captain.
If that was actually allowed, Citra’s post wouldn’t have gone insanely viral (close to 100K shares on Facebook at the time of writing), with many netizens accusing Dimas of making up the rule in order to defend himself and his family.
After finding out about the allegation, Lion Air has promised to carry out an investigation on Dimas and his crew. The airline might issue heavy sanctions against the captain if it was proven that he violated flight safety regulations.
“The pilot (Dimas) will be sanctioned. The sanction could be a demotion, from captain to first officer, or barring him from flying for a period of time. He is a senior pilot,” Lion Air Public Relations Officer Andy Saladin told Kompas yesterday.
The Transportation Ministry said that the allegation against Dimas constitutes a violation of Civil Aviation Safety Regulation 121.547, which prohibits anyone from entering the cockpit of a plane except certified personnel.
“Flight safety is not just the responsibility of flight personnel, but the responsibility of all, including civilians, as human lives are at stake. I appreciate and thank the people who reported this incident,” said Agus Santoso, director general of Aviation at the Transportation Ministry, as quoted by Tempo yesterday.
Agus added that Lion Air has temporarily barred Dimas from flying while the investigation into his case is ongoing.
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