Oksibil Airport Operations Keep Running Although Very Minimized After The Aircraft Shooting By KKB

Oksibil Airport, Bintang Mountains Regency. BETWEEN/HO/PersonalDocuments

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) ensures that it conveys that Oksibil Airport, Papua, continues to operate after the shooting of the plane by the KKB. The considerations are based on humanitarian considerations, supply, and based on the results of coordination with the technical directorate, Airport Organizing Unit (UPBU) and AirNav Notam.

This was conveyed by the Ministry of Transportation regarding the security conditions at Papua's Oksibil Airport which is currently not conducive, after the shooting incident of the Trigana Air cargo plane on January 9, 2023 at 01.45 UTC or 10.45 WIT.

"The shooting incident of the Trigana Air cargo plane at Oksibil Airport is currently being investigated by the authorities," said Director General of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Transportation, M. Kristi Endah Murni in a statement in Jakarta, Wednesday, January 11, quoted by Antara.

Kristi conveyed, based on information from AirNav pilots and officers, the shooting of a caravan type aircraft with PT Ikairos' PK-HVV registration occurred in the short right base runway 11 or the short final runway 11 which is approximately 2 Nm or 3.6 km from the end of runway 11.

"Pilot reported to Air Traffic Controller (ATC) Officers and immediately Return To Base (RTB) to the airport from Tanah Merah Airport," he said.

Furthermore, the flight operators, namely PT Ikairos and Tanah Merah Airport Officers informed that after the plane landed, it was found that gunshot marks on parts of the plane, such as the bottom of the front, which penetrated into the cockpit.

In the shooting incident, the crew was in good condition, airport personnel and facilities were also in good condition.

He said, for the safety and security of flights, starting Tuesday (10/1) yesterday, the Trigana Air plane flight routes from and to Oksibil did not operate until security conditions were declared safe by the authorities.

In order to strengthen security and evacuation due to an emergency situation, the Rimbun Air and Smart Cakrawala Aviation aircraft are operated.

Since the shooting incident, the TNI/Polri have continued to conduct sweeps around the shooting location. Meanwhile, for areas around the airport, security has been carried out from the TNI-AU Kopasghat.

In addition, to ensure safety and security aspects at the airport, coordination has been carried out with the Head of the Bintang Mountains Police, to ensure the safety of flight operations at Oksibil Airport.

As a result of coordination, until now conditions at Oksibil Airport have not been declared conducive in terms of security, and local officials cannot provide overall security guarantees.

Because the potential for disruption has approached the airport area, and flight operations have begun to be disrupted, AirNav plans to evacuate personnel on duty and streamline flight information services by implementing Traffic Information Broadcasting by Aircraft (TIBA).

Kristi added that the evacuation of airport personnel would be carried out as quickly as possible, but not entirely, to maintain operational sustainability at the airport.