There are many reasons why a plane would land behind schedule, but this is the first time we’ve ever heard of a plane being late because the destination airport wasn’t open by the time the plane was arriving.
This morning, Wings Air flight IW 1821 departed Kupang for the Frans Seda airport in Maumere, which is located in the Sikka Regency of East Nusa Tenggara. Instead of making a straightforward landing, the plane was forced to fly around for 20 minutes as the airport wasn’t operational at the time.
Yosep Benyamin, who happens to be a high ranking official within the Sikka Government, recalled the incident this morning.
“The plane couldn’t immediately land and so we were flying around above the airport for 20 minutes because, according to the pilot, the airport wasn’t open at the time, and the pilot apologized to the passengers,” he told Kompas.
Yosep added that this is the third time this has happened to him.
“I ask that the head of the airport be fired because this is public service and related to the safety of passengers. Imagine if there’s an accident, surely [the airport being closed] would pose a huge problem,” he said.
The head of the airport’s management team, Yohanes Keraf, defended the airport and refused to admit they were lazy.
“The plane departed from Kupang earlier [than scheduled] and was arriving at the airport in Maumere when it wasn’t operational so the [air traffic control] tower didn’t give landing permission. This airport starts operations at 8 am WITA,” he said.
Surely somebody ought to have notified Frans Seda airport if there was a change in the flight schedule?
