Minister Of Transportation Affirms Terror Bombing Of Indonesian Hajj Pilgrims

Minister of Transportation (Menhub) Dudy Purwagandhi/ANTARA/Harianto

Minister of Transportation (Menhub) Dudy Purwagandhi emphasized that he had instructed his staff to synergize with related parties to track down the perpetrators of the threat of bombs against Indonesian pilgrims' flights.

"Although it may be a hoax, I also focus on the Director General of Air, we must ask the authorities for help to track down these threats," said the Minister of Transportation as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, June 26.

Dudy emphasized the importance of alertness in dealing with potential security disturbances, because the slightest carelessness can have an impact on public safety in air transportation modes.

According to him, even though the threat is a hoax, the Ministry of Transportation is still obliged to carry out a serious investigation in order to prevent a possible recurrence of similar incidents in the future.

Security threats, he said, will always be in the transportation system, but a disciplined anticipatory response will be the main key to maintaining public comfort and safety.

He ensured that the incident would be a comprehensive evaluation material by the Ministry of Transportation together with the security forces so that the security system and procedures would be further improved thoroughly.

The Minister of Transportation also reminded that flight safety should not be compromised, because keeping human life in air travel is the highest non-negotiable priority.

"So we must not then present these things so that we are careless or not alert. That is the most important thing. Be vigilant, anticipation is the most important thing," said the Minister of Transportation.

Di tempat yang sama, Direktur Jenderal Perhubungan Udara Kemenhub Lukman F. Laisa menambahkan pihaknya telah berkoordinasi dengan sejumlah pihak terkait untuk mengusut ancaman tersebut meski hanya hoaks.

Lukman mentioned a number of steps that have been taken, namely informing the incident to the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) or the Saudi Arabian civil aviation authority and the National Counterterrorism Bandan (BNPT).

In addition, his party also wrote to the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN) to get assistance in investigating this matter.

"We hope that there will be results from investigations carried out by both BIN, BSSN and BNPT," said Lukman.

Previously, the threat of bombs occurred on Tuesday (17/6), where Saudia Airlines aircraft with flight number SV-5726 carrying 442 pilgrims from Indonesia were forced to make an emergency landing at Kualanamu Airport, Medan.

The emergency landing was carried out after the threat of a bomb sent by an unknown person via electronic mail (email) at 07.30 WIB.

The email contained threats from an unknown person who was about to blow up a plane belonging to Saudia Airlines SV 5276 on the Jeddah-Jakarta (Soekarno Hatta Airport) route carrying 442 pilgrims in the 12th JKS Group.

Then, the second case that occurred on Saturday (21/6), the Saudia SV-5688 aircraft containing 376 passengers of the Surabaya Flying Group (kloter) pilgrims again made an emergency landing at Kualanamu Airport, Deli Serdang, after receiving another suspected bomb threat.

The threat was made by telephone received by Air Traffic Control (ATC) officer at the Jakarta Area Control Center (ACC) from Kuala Lumpur ACC, but with a different route, namely the Jeddah-Muscat (Oman)-Surabaya route.

The Ministry of Transportation emphasized that the threat of bombs to Saudi aircraft carrying hundreds of pilgrims from Indonesia was baseless, and was classified as hoax information by the relevant authorities.