Jakarta – A former pilot of Indonesian carrier Adam Air, which lost a jet carrying 102 people this month, accused the firm of forcing pilots to fly aircraft lacking safety clearance or with malfunctioning parts.
Sutan Salahuddin, who worked for Adam Air for 18 months, said pilots were frequently forced to fly aircraft which had not been cleared. He said management in 2005 twice overrode his objections to flying aircraft that had not met safety standards.
"There was no maintenance check by engineers but I was forced to sign the maintenance log," Salahuddin, 36, said of one flight from Jakarta to the North Sumatra city of Medan.
In the second instance, one of the company owners directly ordered him to fly an aircraft to Padang in West Sumatra, despite his objections following a malfunction in the navigation back-up system. "I was called directly by the owner... I was really scared," he told journalists.
Salahuddin was waiting at the West Jakarta court for the verdict in a three-billion-rupiah (329,000-dollar) suit Adam Air filed against him for alleged breach of his four-year contract. The company had demanded he repay the three billion rupiah it spent on pilot training. Another pilot was also sued.
Judge Zaenal Arifin later said both sides had agreed to an out-of-court settlement although the sum involved remained to be negotiated. "Both sides agreed to a peaceful settlement," Arifin said.
Salahuddin's lawyer Junaidi Sirait said his client had demanded the company retract all reports and correspondence with aviation authorities and companies over the resignation of 16 company pilots in 2005 and pay an as yet undefined sum as a compensation for "immaterial loss."
Salahuddin is one of 16 former Adam Air pilots who quit the airline. Twelve were originally being sued by the airline, but eight had indicated their intention to return to Adam Air, company lawyer Widyaningsih said.
She said they company lost track of two others, leaving just the two who were sued.
Indonesian and US navy ships are still searching for most of the wreckage from the Boeing 737-400 which crashed en route from Surabaya on the central island of Java to Manado on Sulawesi. The reason for the crash remains unknown.