ID :
46717
Fri, 02/20/2009 - 23:49
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/46717
The shortlink copeid
AIR FORCE PROBING SUKHOI MISSILE LOCKING INCIDENT
Jakarta, Feb 20 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Air Force is currently investigating an incident in which an unknown party had activated the alarm missile locks of two recently acquired Sukhoi fighter aircraft making training flights over South Sulawesi.
"We will check all possibilities : from a malfunction in the aircrafts' radar warning systems to a foreign party having locked on the planes," Air Commodore Yushan Sayuti, chief of the Air Force's Operations Command II based in Makassar, said on Friday.
The two Sukhoi SU-30MK2 planes with Russian instructors on board were on flights to train Indonesian pilots when their alarm instruments signaled that somebody had locked on them for a missile attack. The alarms, however, were unable to identify the potential attacker, according to Air Commodore Ida Bagus Putu Dunia, commander of the Sultan Hasanuddin Air Force base in Makassar when contacted by phone from Jakarta.
The first report on the incident was received from the Russian instructors who were training two Indonesian pilots, Dunia said.
Commodore Sayuti said malfunctions or damage could happen to the radar systems of aircraft made by eastern as well as western countries. Even after the planes had been tested thoroughly, malfunctions could still crop up in training flights, he said.
"This is what we will be checking more minutely without ruling out the possibility that it was the work of a foreign party," he said.
He said his command had coordinated with the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI)'s National Air Defense Command and the Indonesian Navy to check whether there had been any "black flights" over Indonesian territory or requests for permission to fly through Indonesian air space from foreign parties lately. But the results of the verification were negative.
Even so, Sayuti said, "we will also conduct scouring operations and have for this purpose a;ready deployed a Boeing reconnaissance plane from Air Squadron V."
The Indonesian Air Force recently took delivery of three of six Sukhoi SU-30MK2 fighter planes Indonesia had bought from Russia.
"We will check all possibilities : from a malfunction in the aircrafts' radar warning systems to a foreign party having locked on the planes," Air Commodore Yushan Sayuti, chief of the Air Force's Operations Command II based in Makassar, said on Friday.
The two Sukhoi SU-30MK2 planes with Russian instructors on board were on flights to train Indonesian pilots when their alarm instruments signaled that somebody had locked on them for a missile attack. The alarms, however, were unable to identify the potential attacker, according to Air Commodore Ida Bagus Putu Dunia, commander of the Sultan Hasanuddin Air Force base in Makassar when contacted by phone from Jakarta.
The first report on the incident was received from the Russian instructors who were training two Indonesian pilots, Dunia said.
Commodore Sayuti said malfunctions or damage could happen to the radar systems of aircraft made by eastern as well as western countries. Even after the planes had been tested thoroughly, malfunctions could still crop up in training flights, he said.
"This is what we will be checking more minutely without ruling out the possibility that it was the work of a foreign party," he said.
He said his command had coordinated with the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI)'s National Air Defense Command and the Indonesian Navy to check whether there had been any "black flights" over Indonesian territory or requests for permission to fly through Indonesian air space from foreign parties lately. But the results of the verification were negative.
Even so, Sayuti said, "we will also conduct scouring operations and have for this purpose a;ready deployed a Boeing reconnaissance plane from Air Squadron V."
The Indonesian Air Force recently took delivery of three of six Sukhoi SU-30MK2 fighter planes Indonesia had bought from Russia.
