TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A Lion Air jet plane was involved in an incident on Wednesday night after the left wing of the carrier’s flight JT 633 bumped into an airport pole at the Fatmawati Bengkulu Airport, which resulted in a severely damaged left wing tip.
The flight was eventually canceled and forced its 143 passengers to be transferred into another flight to Jakarta after four hours of delay.
Read also: Another Lion Air Hit a Pole in Bengkulu; Pilot, Aircraft Grounded
Tempo`s correspondent at the Fatmawati Airport stated that the incident has affected the following Lion Air flight schedules. One of its flight planned to depart at 05:40 Western Indonesia Time (WIB) was delayed to 09:45 WIB.
“But until now, it’s still uncertain whether the flight would take off at 09:45 WIB,” said Andika, a passenger who had been waiting for information from Lion Air since early this morning.
According to Lion Air`s strategic communications corporate, Danang Mandala Prihantoro, the Lion Air flight JT 633 uses a Boeing 737-900ER. The incident took place when the aircraft was on its way to the runway and bumped into a pole halfway into the airport’s taxiway.
PHESI ESTER JULIKAWATI