Lion Air plane grounded after crashing into electric pole

PETALING JAYA: A Lion Air aircraft was grounded after it crashed into an electric pole at the Fatmawati Airport in Bengkulu City on Wednesday (Nov 7), Indonesian media reported.

This incident again puts Lion Air in the spotlight after its flight JT610 plane en route from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang city on Sumatra island crashed into the sea on Oct 28, killing all 189 people.

Lion Air again, the airplane was ready for take off and hit a light pole at Fatmawati Bengkulu Airport, Aircraft Reg JT-633, Route BKS-CGK. Something big and wrong is happening there .... pic.twitter.com/Tu54yoPCyk — Aviation Safety Consulting (@avsafeco) November 7, 2018

Photos of the damaged aircraft in Bengkulu circulated on social media showing a tear in the plane's left wing with a large fragment dangling off it.

Indonesian portal Tempo reported that acting director-general of Air Transportation Pramintohadi Sukarno had confirmed the incident.

Pramintohadi said the Boeing 737-900 ER aircraft was scheduled to depart from Fatmawati Airport in Bengkulu to Soekarno Hatta Airport in Banten at 6.20pm local time when it hit a pole while moving towards the runway for takeoff.

“The aircraft and pilot are grounded for investigation purposes,” he said.

According to Tempo, Lion Air corporate communications strategic executive Danang Mandala Prihantoro had apologised over the incident and said that a team had been deployed to examine the plane.

“Lion Air apologises to all passengers for the inconvenience caused by the incident,” Danang said

There were no casualties reported.

Another aircraft is said to have been deployed to transport the 143 passengers of Lion Air flight JT633 to Jakarta.