Indonesian navy grounds eight aircraft: official

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian navy has grounded eight of its light aircraft following a recent crash that killed two people and left two critically injured, the navy said Thursday.
"We have 22 Nomad aircraft and eight of them are now grounded," navy spokesman Commodore Iskandar Sitompul told AFP.
Sitompul said the navy had conducted a check of the aircraft following the plane crash in waters north of Indonesia's Aceh province on December 30 last year. It found eight were "not airworthy," he said.
Iskandar said the crashed Nomad was last overhauled in 1997 and still had 1,750 hours of flight time left before it was due for its next overhaul. He also said that the last check on the aircraft showed that the condition of its airframe was still good for another 1,204 hours.
In a press release later Thursday, Sitompul said crash investigations showed that the pilot had been preparing for a landing because of engine trouble, "but it is believed that turbulence forced the airplane to fall into the sea." (*) END

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