Breaking news: Bravo crash in Sragen, Pilot Die

Indonesian Air Force Crash Kills Pilot
Yet another military plane crashed in Central Java on Thursday morning, killing one person and bringing to nine the total number of military aircraft accidents in the country this year.

The Bravo AS 202 Air Force plane, which was on a training mission, went down in the district of Sragen around 10:30 a.m. and landed in a rice field before breaking into pieces.

Debris was scattered over a wide area and the sole passenger and pilot, Second Lt. Felix, a student of the Air Force’s 2008 flight school class, was killed.

“Felix was doing an exercise as part of preparations for the Solo Aerobatics event, which will be held in October,” said Bambang Susilo, the head of Air Force’s communications office.

Bambang could not say what caused the crash, but said a range of factors including human error, poor weather, machinery problems or operational failure could be to blame.

“Our team is still investigating the incident,” he said, adding the weather in Sragen was clear and sunny at the time of the crash.

According to Bambang, the plane took off from the Adi Sumarno Air Field in Solo, East Java, around 10 a.m.

A Navy Nomad P-837 surveillance aircraft went down in East Kalimantan on Sept. 9, killing at least four people, including two civilians, and injured five others.

That incident prompted lawmakers in the House of Representatives to demand that the military ground all of its aging aircraft to curb the possibility of further accidents.

Most of the military’s aircraft were purchased in the 1970s and 1980s.

An Air Force Hercules C-130 transport plane crashed in East Java in May, killing at least 101 people on board.

Budget constraints have been blamed for frequent military plane accidents in the country.

In the 2010 budget proposal President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono submitted to the House last August, the government allocated Rp 40.6 trillion ($4.18 billion) on national defense, up 20 percent from this year.

Yudhoyono also promised to gradually increase military spending over the course of his upcoming term.

Earlier he stated that the ideal level for defense spending would be about Rp 100 trillion to Rp 120 trillion per year.