Supervision Tightened, Indonesian Air Force Ensures No Foreign Aircraft At IMIP Airport, Central Sulawesi

Indonesian Assistant to the Indonesian Air Force Chief of Staff Marshal Palito Sitorus at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base, East Jakarta, Thursday (27/11/2025) (ANTARA/Walda Marison)

Assistant Territorial Air Force Chief of Staff Marshal Palito Sitorus confirmed that there was no activity going in and out of foreign aircraft at private airports owned by PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP), Central Sulawesi.

"The movement of planes there is not yet from abroad. So it's only from internal," said Palito at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base, Jakarta, Antara, Thursday, November 27.

However, the Indonesian Air Force continues to strengthen supervision at the airport. Palito emphasized that if an illegal foreign aircraft is found, his party will take firm action.

"Of course the Air Force will take action. But so far there has been no movement of foreign aircraft," he said.

IMIP Airport is a private facility built using corporate cooperative funds, and is used for the transportation of workers and company logistics. Based on ANTARA's monitoring, there are no elements of government such as Customs, Police, and TNI on duty in the airport area.

On November 20, 2025, the TNI held a joint exercise at IMIP airport, starting from force down operations for foreign aircraft to airport capture operations by Korpasgat. This exercise is carried out to increase military preparedness in preventing illegal mining actions that are detrimental to the state.

Minister of Defense Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin highlighted the phenomenon of the construction of transportation facilities without the presence of state officials. He called this condition an anomaly that was detrimental to Indonesia.

TNI menggelar latihan terhadap bandara yang tidak memiliki perangkat negara yang bertugas di dalamnya. Ini anomalous di negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia, kata Sjafrie.

According to Sjafrie, the absence of government elements makes airport activities unsupervised so that they are prone to being used for illegal activities.

"There is no concept of 'state in the country' in Indonesia. Supervision must be tightened to prevent activities that harm the state," he said.