TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) is mourning the passing of one of its mechanical engineering faculty students, Muhammad Rasyid Ghifary (19) who was tragically killed in a test launch of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) held at the Sulaiman air base in Bandung on June 6.

The mechanical engineering faculty dean Tatacipta Dirgantara on Thursday confirmed, “The test was a preparation for a competition.”

The test flight was an annual program prior to entering a competition that was overseen by campus management and students from multiple faculties participated in the event.

On a tragic day on Tuesday, the team intended to fly the UAV they built with a giant catapult-like platform that is common in launching similar types of aerial vehicles. According to the team leader, the catapult is a common equipment they had used for the past five years and had gone on injury-free.

However, unfortunately, one of the two pilings of the catapult ejected as tension was put to the catapult and unfortunately killed Muhammad Rasyid Ghifary and injured another student nearby. Initial investigation suggested the platform of the two slingshot poles was weakened due to heavy rainfall the previous day.

UAV testing was postponed by campus management due to the incident and a further investigation will be conducted in the near future. Ghifary was known to be an active student in organizations and had scored good academic grades.

ANWAR SISWADI

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