REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The investigation into the cause of the Indonesian Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft crash in Medan, North Sumatra, on Tuesday, will take at least two weeks, stated National Defense Forces (TNI) Chief General Moeldoko.
"The investigation team from the Air Force is still trying to find the cause of the crash, and it will take at least two weeks," Moeldoko revealed here on Thursday.
He noted that after the crash, Air Force Chief of Staff Marshal Agus Supriatna immediately dispatched a team to the accident site to investigate the cause of the crash.
He said the team was also tasked with finding whether the set procedures were violated when the ill-fated aircraft took its last flight.
"The TNI headquarters has also sent its team to investigate non-technical aspects such as procedures, mechanism, and operations. The team will see what went wrong on the non-technical side," Moeldoko remarked.
In the meantime, Marshal Agus Supriatna in Medan on Wednesday denied an allegation that the Hercules plane crash on Tuesday was due to overloading.
Supriatna noted that the aircraft had a capacity to carry people and goods up to a total weight of 135 tons.
It was allowed to takeoff from Polonia Airbase in Medan after all cargo had met its capacity requirements, Supriatna affirmed.
"The flight would have certainly not been allowed to takeoff had it been overloaded," he pointed out.
Therefore, Supriatna believes that the plane crash, which claimed the lives of 122 people, was not the result of overloading.
The pilot of the aircraft Captain Sandy Permana's request to return to the airbase only confirmed the assumption, he pointed out.
"There was no problem with regard to the capacity. This was clearly an accident," he stated.
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