page_title: Dirgantara Air Service Flight 3130
section_title: Initial examination
hierarchical_section_title: Dirgantara Air Service Flight 3130 / Investigation / Initial examination
caption_attribution_description: English: Body of Dirgantara Flight 3130
context_page_description: Dirgantara Air Service Flight 3130 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by Dirgantara Air Service from Datah Dawai Airport, Malinau Regency, East Kalimantan to its provincial capital's airport, Samarinda Temindung Airport, Samarinda, East Kalimantan. On 18 November 2000, the aircraft conducting the flight, a Britten Norman Islander BN-2 sheared tree tops and crashed onto the forest near the airport shortly after takeoff. Search and rescue team immediately found the wreckage of Flight 3130 and the survivors. No one was killed in the crash, but all 18 people on board were injured in the crash; 11 of them were seriously hurt.
  The final report, published by the National Transportation Safety Committee, concluded that the crash was caused due to multiple factors, which were pilot error, overloading, and lack of safety in the airport. The wrong perception by the pilot, added with the plane overloading that was caused by bribery, subsequently causing the plane to crash. The airline ceased operations in 2009 and officially went bankrupt in 2013.
context_section_description: Investigators inspected the wreckage of Flight 3130 and found that there was not a single indication of a rotation on the propeller during the crash. Further inspection on the wreckage revealed that the propeller, mixture and throttle levers were all the way back. This indicated that the engine might have not running at the time of the crash. The engine could have been shut down by Captain Abdul. There are three possibilities that caused the shutdown; those are engine fire, engine failure, or an emergency procedure.
  The propellers didn't have any indications of an engine fire. The propellers were found in fine pitch and unfeathered position, which indicating an improper engine shutdown procedure. The wreckage indicated that the propeller levers position was not caused by the impact. All the levers on the pedestal were bent to the left due to impact from the right side. It is possible that Captain Abdul may not have time to perform a proper engine shutdown procedure. This, and the fact that the settings for both engines were the same indicate that a single engine failure did not occur. One sparkplugs from each cylinder was examined. The plugs were dry and clean indicating there were no signs of combustion failure.
  Investigators interviewed the survivors. Based on survivors' statements, they claimed that the aircraft was handling more passengers than usual. The usual number of passengers was 9, as the maximum number of passenger seats are 9. While at the time, it reached 17. A row of seat that usually was occupied by 2 people had to be cramped up to 4 people, causing most of the passengers to not wear their seatbelts. These, causing the high number of injuries. During the initial climb, the aircraft didn't gain height and subsequently crashed. Survivors blamed overloading for the cause of the accident. An analysis on the weight and balance of Flight 3130 was conducted. Dirgantara Air Service's Standard Operating Procedures stated that the maximum takeoff payload from Datah Dawai was limited to 496 kilograms, while the actual takeoff payload was 913.5 kg, exceeding the company standards by 417.5 kg, or by 84% of the allowed payload weight. Britten Norman issued the maximum takeoff weight (for Datah Dawai Airport elevation, which is 650 ft) is 6.300 lbs or 2.860 kg. The aircraft takeoff weight at Datah Dawai was 6.572 kilograms, exceeded manufacturer maximum takeoff weight by 272 lbs or 4.32%. However, Dirgantara Air Service argued from the manual that the maximum takeoff weight is 6.600 lbs. The center of gravity calculated is still inside the moment flight envelope, but close to the aft limit of the envelope. The aircraft takeoff trim was set to near −1, meaning that the center of gravity was slightly aft.
  Calculation of the flight performance indicated that with a reported 6.007 lbs aircraft weight (allowable for Datah Dawai according to the airline's SOP) and two engines operation, the aircraft could climb as high as 200 ft height from the runway elevation at 533.3 meter range (first segment climb). The aircraft should be able to reach 500 ft at 1.261 meters range (second segment climb). This performance capability will assure a safe clearance from existing obstacles. Using a linearized performance model, applying the actual weight of 6.572 lbs, the net gradient climb was calculated to be 12.6%. A correction factor applied to the linearized model resulting in an estimated climb gradient of 11%. With this climb gradient the aircraft can only reach 176 ft at 533.3m range, instead of the required 200 ft. At 176 ft above airport ground level, the aircraft height above the top of the trees was 11 ft (marginal).
caption: Wreckage of PK-VIY after the crash. The severely crushed fuselage could be seen in the photo.
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