Mimika Air Flight 514
A Pilatus PC-6 Porter similar to the one involved in the incident.
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| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 17 April 2009 |
| Summary | Spatial disorientation due to pilot error |
| Site | Mount Gergaji, Papua, Indonesia |
| Passengers | 9 |
| Crew | 2 |
| Fatalities | 11 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Pilatus PC-6 |
| Operator | Mimika Air |
| Registration | PK-LTJ |
| Destination | Ilaga, Papua, Indonesia |
Mimika Air Flight 514 was an 18 minutes chartered passenger flight using a Pilatus PC-6 Porter operating a Mimika Air flight from Mulia to Ilaga (Papua). On the morning of 17 April 2009, while en route to Ilaga, the aircraft impacted Mount Gergaji, killing all eleven passengers and crews on board.
The Mimika Air crash was the second fatal aviation accident in Papua; and the third in Indonesia; in less than two weeks. A cargo aircraft had also crashed in Papua on April 9, killing six people; and an Indonesian Air Force aircraft had crashed in West Java on April 6, killing 24 people.
National Transportation Safety Committee released the final report and concluded that the plane crashed due to pilot lack of familiarazation with the route, which leads into pilot lost control of the plane due to spatial disorientation. As the aircraft flew into the cloud, the pilot suddenly overwhelmed by spatial disorientation and didn't do the corrective action to recover the aircraft as the aircraft started to lose control. Few seconds later the plane impacted terrain.
The Mimika Air flight took off from Mulia, Papua province, Indonesia, at 10:00 A.M. on Friday, April 17, 2009. The flight was to last approximately eighteen minutes and was scheduled to land in Ilaga, which is also located in Papua province. The Pilatus Porter light aircraft crashed en route to Ilaga.
There were many peaks and high elevation while conducting the Mulia-Ilaga route. Therefore, the route could only use visual flight rules. Pilots familiar with the route and the aircraft type reported that it was impossible for a Pilatus Porter to depart from Ilaga and climb over Mount Gergaji without a series of circling flight. If climbing circling flight were executed, the time interval between Mulia-Ilaga route would be considerably longer than the planned 18 minutes flight.
A total of eleven people were on board – nine passengers and two pilots. Among the passengers were secretary of the Puncak Jaya polling body, Martin Jitmau and chairman of the local election supervisory committee, Herman Senanfi. The pilot was a Myanmar citizens, while the other ten were Indonesians. The flight consisted of one pilot, one observer, and nine passengers: eight adults and one infant. At the time of the crash, the aircraft was also carrying a voting box and paper for the national legislative election in the country.
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Wikipedia