Nusantara Buana Air Flight 823

Nusantara Buana Air Flight 823 was a non-scheduled domestic passenger flight, flying from Medan to Kutacane. On 29 September 2011, the CASA C-212 Aviocar registered as PK-TLF crashed halfway through its flight from Polonia International Airport, Indonesia.^[3] The crash killed all eighteen people on board; fourteen passengers and four crew.^[1] There was no distress signal from the aircraft before disappearing from radar.

According to witnesses, they saw the plane smoking and circling low before the crash.^[3] Rescue efforts were hampered after the crash due to the location of the remote jungle site along with harsh weather condition. Shortly after the loss of contact, there were hopes for survivors, but after two days of hampered searching no survivors were found.

The cockpit voice recorder revealed that the pilots discussed the cloudy weather and there being no gap between the clouds. Both pilots agreed to fly into the cloud, but they consequently lost visual references to the ground. The accident has been classified as controlled flight into terrain (CFIT). Following this accident, the operator has issued safety actions, the National Transport Safety Committee (NTSC) considered the adoption of these actions by the operator were sufficient to prevent a similar occurrence and decided not to issue any safety recommendations to the operator. The NTSC issued safety recommendations to the DGCA.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a CASA C-212 Aviocar operated by Nusantara Buana Air.^[3] It was first flown in 1989 and it had a tail number of PK-TLF and a C/N/msn of 283/88N.^[1] The National Transportation Safety Committee (Indonesian: KNKT) reported that at the time the aircraft crashed it was in a decent condition. Nusantara Buana Air's official also reported that the plane was in a good condition.

Flight

The flight was operated by Nusantara Buana Air (NBA) as Nusantara Buana Air Flight 823, a non-scheduled passenger flight from Polonia International Airport (MES/WIMM), Medan - North Sumatera to Alas Leuser Airport, Kuta Cane, South East Aceh. The aircraft departed from Medan at 0728 LT (0028 UTC) and expected to arrive at Kuta Cane at 0058 UTC. There were two pilots and 16 passengers on board, including two children and two infants. The flight was conducted under Visual Flight Rules (VFR).

At 0032 UTC the aircraft contacted Medan Director controller reported climbing passing 4000 to 8000 feet, informed the estimate time of arrival Kuta Cane to be at 0050 UTC, and also requested to fly direct to point “PAPA”. At about 0041 UTC the aircraft reported established contact to Kuta Cane Radio. The communication with Medan Director controller was terminated. The CVR recorded that the pilot contacted Kuta Cane Radio three times but there was no reply.

At about 0050 UTC, the aircraft was last observed on the radar screen at a position about 35 nm from MDN VOR. At 0100 UTC, Kuta Cane airport authority contacted to the NBA representative at Kuta Cane and asked the aircraft position. The NBA staff at Kuta Cane then contacted the NBA office in Medan and informed that the aircraft has not arrived at Kuta Cane. At about 0120 UTC, a Cessna Caravan operated by Susi Air flew from Kuta Cane to Medan and reported that the weather was Visual Meteorological Condition (VMC) and the wind was calm. Few clouds were observed at some mountain peaks. At about 0150 UTC, Medan Airport authority received information from the search and rescue office in Jakarta (BASARNAS) that there was an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) signal detected at coordinate N 030 24’ 00”; E 098 0 01’ 00”.

At about 0700 UTC, a search was initiated by two Cessna Caravans of Susi Air. They found the aircraft on a 70° slope at 5,055 feet altitude in the Leuser Mountain National Park, 16 nm from Kuta Cane, on coordinate N 03 0 24’ 00”; E 098 0 01’00”.

The aircraft had severe damage to the lower forward fuselage, both wing tips were detached at the outer wing area and wing leading edge were damaged.

Passengers and crew

There were 18 persons on board consisteing of two pilots and 16 passengers including two children and two infants. The pilots were:

• Captain Famal Ishak, who had 5,935 hours of flying experience and 3,730 hours on the CASA C-212. He had prior experience in Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Sumatra and Nusa Tenggara.
• First Officer Budiono, had a total hours of 2,500 flying experience and 1,100 hours on type. He was a former Indonesian Army pilot.

Investigation

Weather was reported by Medan's Meteorological Climatology and Geophysical Agency (BMKG); at 0047 UTC it was acknowledged that the weather at the accident site was partly cloudy, with westerly wind about 10 knots. The satellite image indicated a weather changing between 00.00 UTC to 01.00 UTC as shown by decreasing of active cloud observed over east coast of Aceh and dissipating of active cloud north of the accident site. The weather that was observed by a Cessna Caravan pilot that was flying around the area at 0120 UTC was within the requirement for Visual Meteorological Condition (VMC) and wind was calm. Few cloud formations were observed on the top of the mountains. Refer to the weather improvement indicated by satellite images suggested that the weather condition during accident flight might be worse than the Cessna flight which was flying after the accident flight. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) revealed that there was pilot discussion concerning the weather condition, where pilot mentioned some high cloud surround the flight path. There was also a statement one of the pilot and was agreed by another pilot that they would fly into the cloud due to no gap of cloud to pass.

The pilot had flown this route many times; his last flight on the route was 24 days prior to the accident. The CVR revealed that there was uncertainty of the aircraft's position because of lack of visual reference. The damage indicated that the aircraft crashed on relatively level path as it impacted the 70° slope ridge. There was no indication of any attempts to avoid the crash.

Missing or late of the recovery action was caused by very low visibility prior to impact.^[4]

Aftermath

After the crash, the Indonesian Government suspended Nusantara Buana Air's Air operator's certificate.^[5] This leaves all of Nusantara Buana Air's flights grounded.^[2]

See also

• Pan Am Flight 812
• Trigana Air Service Flight 267

References

External links

• Aircraft image
• Final reports – National Transportation Safety Committee