The Red Color Of The Presidential Plane Is In The Spotlight, The Palace Gives Explaination For The Reason

Presidential Aircraft/ Twitter Andi Arief

JAKARTA - The color change on the presidential plane caused the spotlight on social media. The plane that was previously dominated by a blue color combination of white has now turned red with a white combination.

One of these highlights came from the Democrat Party politician Andi Arief. Through his Twitter account, he questioned the reason for the color change.

"Now the presidential plane is red. I don't know what that means, it could be the color of the flag or the corona", he wrote on the @Andiarief__ account quoted Tuesday, August 3.

He said the blue presidential plane was designed by an Air Force Major. The goal is to increase flight safety as a camouflage color.

Responding to the crowds on social media, the Head of the Presidential Secretariat Heru Budi Hartono confirmed that the painting had been carried out on the Indonesian Presidential Aircraft-1 or BBJ 2.

He said the painting was actually planned since 2019 to commemorate the 75th Indonesian Independence Day in 2020. However, the painting is only being done now because at that time the BBJ 2 aircraft had not yet entered the routine maintenance schedule.

"The painting process itself is a work in one package with the Super Puma Heli and the RJ Aircraft. However, in 2019 the BBJ 2 aircraft has not yet entered the routine maintenance schedule so that the first painting is carried out for the Super Puma Heli and the RJ Aircraft", explained Heru to reporters.

According to him, Such maintenance must be carried out regularly and in accordance with the specified time intervals. This is also in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations.

"The routine maintenance of the BBJ 2 aircraft that crashed in 2021 is a Check C maintenance according to the manufacturer's recommendations, so this year maintenance and painting with Red and White nuances has been carried out as previously planned. The timing is also more efficient because it is carried out simultaneously with the maintenance process", said Heru.

Furthermore, he also denied the assumption that the painting was a form of wasting the state budget in the midst of a pandemic. According to him, this painting has been planned since 2019 and is expected to be able to give pride to the nation and state.

Moreover, as an effort to fund the handling of COVID, the Ministry of State Secretariat has also refocused the budget on the 2020 State Budget and 2021 State Budget.

"We add that the maintenance and painting process is carried out domestically so that it indirectly supports the domestic aviation industry, which is affected by the pandemic", he concluded.