An Adam Air Boeing 737-300 carrying 145 passengers flew for four hours without navigation or communications systems before making a safe emergency landing on a runway 400m (1,320ft) too short, Indonesian reports say.
The systems on aircraft (thought to be PK-KKU) failed 20min into the flight from Jakarta's international airport at 06:20 on Saturday en route to Makassar, capital of Indonesia's South Sulawesi province. The pilot kept on the heading originally set and continued flying for around 4h before sighting an airfield on the eastern island of Sumba and performing an emergency landing at 10:45. During the flight the crew changed altitudes many times, passengers told local newspapers.
The airfield has a runway of 1,800m, 400m shorter than the recommended minimum of 2,200m. Passengers described the landing as being like a sports car stopping. All passengers were unhurt and were later flown on to Makassar.
An investigation into the incident has been launched by Indonesian authorities.
Source: Flight International
