A Merpati Nusantara Boeing 737-300 has broken up after overshooting the runway while landing at Manokwari Airport in West Papua and plunging into a river.
There were no casualties among the 103 passengers and crew, and around 20 people are being treated for injuries at nearby hospitals, says Merpati's company secretary Sukandi. The aircraft was on the way from Sorong, a town in West Papua, to Manokwari when the incident took place at 11:00h local time, he adds.
The aircraft's registration is PK-MDF, he says. This is a 20-year-old airframe, according to Flightglobal's ACAS database.
"It was raining very heavily when the incident took place. We understand that the aircraft overshot the runway by several hundred metres and went into the river. All of the passengers managed to get out safely before the aircraft broke into a few pieces and sank," says Sukandi.
There have been several incidents involving Merpati aircraft over the last year, casting a spotlight on safety and maintenance standards among Indonesia's airlines.
A Merpati de Havilland Canada Twin Otter crashed in west Papua on 2 August, killing all 15 passengers. A Fokker 100 made an emergency landing on west Timor in December after its left main landing wheel failed to deploy properly, and the wheel on the landing gear of a 737-400 fell off in July as the aircraft was taking off from an airport in eastern Indonesia.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
