6 Apr 2009

Airline pilot jailed for crash negligence

8:44 pm on 6 April 2009

An Indonesian court has sentenced the pilot of a Garuda Indonesia aircraft to two years in jail for negligence in an air crash in 2007 in which 21 people were killed.

Prosecutors said Marwoto Komar, who had 22 years of flying experience, ignored warnings from his co-pilot and onboard alert signals about the plane's speed and trajectory when landing the aircraft with 140 people on board.

The plane bounced and skidded off the runway at Yogyakarta airport before bursting into flames.

Komar had denied the charges.

Indonesia has suffered a string of airline disasters in recent years, raising concerns about safety and prompting the European Union to ban Indonesian airlines from its airspace.