Jakarta- The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has lowered Indonesia's airline-oversight rating after two deadly crashes this year, saying it did not meet minimum international standards, a statement released Tuesday said. The downgrade to Category 2 followed the New Year's Day crash of a jetliner operated by local budget carrier Adam Air in central Indonesia, which killed all 102 people aboard; the crash landing of a Garuda Airlines plane in Yogyakarta on March 7, which killed 21 people; and a hard landing by another Adam Air plane in February that cracked its fuselage and injured several passengers.
"Category 2 indicates that the FAA has assessed the government of Indonesia's Civil Aviation Authority as not being in compliance with International Civil Aviation Organization aviation-safety standards for the oversight of Indonesia's air-carrier operations," the statement, released by the US embassy in Jakarta, said.
The embassy urged Americans travelling to and from Indonesia to use only international carriers.
The FAA stated that it did not support the conclusions of a safety audit conducted by Indonesian aviation authorities last month that concluded its 48 commercial, charter and cargo airlines all met minimum international safety requirements although they did not meet all regulations.
The ruling was the latest blow to Indonesia's crisis-wracked transport industry, which has also seen the sinking of two passenger ferries and two train accidents since December 29, which killed more than 350 people.
Transportation Minister Hatta Radjasa, who has refused calls to resign, told a luncheon with journalists on Tuesday that implementing a new safety programme for the aviation industry was a more pressing issue than whether he should quit.
"The last three months has been the hardest of my life," he said during an address to the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club, adding that he had discussed the possibility of resigning with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Radjasa said the ministry had prepared a road map to improve safety in all sectors of the aviation industry, including ensuring ageing radar equipment would be replaced, runway safety areas would be long enough and airline pilots and companies would be properly certified.
Investigators in the Garuda crash last month concluded that the runway safety area at the airport in Yogyakarta in Central Java was less than half the internationally recommended length and rescue crews were unprepared to deal with the disaster.
Investigators also concluded the plane was travelling nearly double the normal speed when it attempted to land.
Mishaps also occurred with the January 1 crash of the Adam Air flight, which disappeared off antiquated radar screens over Sulawesi Island. It took search teams 10 days to find the wreckage of the plane, which apparently plunged into the Makassar Strait off the coast of West Sulawesi province.
Adam Air is still negotiating with two US wreckage recovery firms to retrieve the plane's black box, which remains on the seabed about 2,000 metres underwater more than three months after the crash.
Dozens of budget airlines sprung up in Indonesia in 1999 after the government liberalized the country's aviation industry, but the boom was followed by worries about safety practices by operators and lax government oversight. Regulators were widely believed to take bribes in exchange for processing aviation certificates and clearing aircraft to fly.
Radjasa acknowledged at much on Tuesday, saying enforcement of long-established safety regulations was now his top priority.
"We have to be strict to follow the regulations," he said. "No hanky-panky."
Radjasa said he would propose that all commercial jetliners currently operating in Indonesia - most of them are more than 20 years old - be no more than 10 years old by later this year.
He also proposed removing the National Transportation Safety Committee, which investigates airline crashes, from within the Transportation Ministry and making it an independent agency that reports directly to the president.
"We believe that this will be accepted by the public," he said.
