Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 5601 (MNA5601/MZ5601) was a domestic scheduled passenger flight, that departed Achmad Yani International Airport, Semarang, Indonesia bound for Husein Sastranegara International Airport, Bandung, Indonesia. On 18 October 1992, the two-year-old CASA/IPTN CN-235-10 was on approach to Bandung when it crashed into the side of Mount Puntang, near Mount Papandayan, West Java, Indonesia at 1:30 pm in bad weather. The aircraft exploded on impact killing all twenty seven passengers and four crew on board.
Flight 5601 is the worst ever civilian aviation disaster involving a CASA/IPTN CN-235, the deadliest in the company's history, the deadliest in Garut history, and the second deadliest aviation accident in Indonesia in 1992, after a plane flew into a mountain in eastern Indonesia which claimed 70 lives. It was also the deadliest plane crash involving an Indonesian aircraft. At the time of the incident it was the deadliest aviation accident in West Java, which later surpassed in 2012 when a Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed into Mount Salak killing 45 people.
The crash sparked large controversy and trust issues in every Indonesian built aircraft. This is because the plane was produced and designed by Bacharudin Jusuf Habibie, a former Indonesian president who at the time held the position of State Minister of Science and Technology. He denied that the cause of the accident was because of design flaws. An Indonesian investigator team and the National Transportation Safety Committee confirmed that the cause of the crash wasn't because of design flaws, but due to pilot error aggravated by bad weather conditions.
Flight
The plane was on approach to Husein Sastranegara Airport in Bandung, carrying twenty seven passengers and four crew. The Captain, a female, 29 year old Fierda Basaria Panggabean made first contact to Jakarta control tower in Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng informing the tower about the flight. Flight 5601:"Merpati five six zero one. We are from Semarang" Flight 5601 was at above mean sea level. Sumardi, the person in charge in ACO (Approach Control Office), told Flight 5601 that the weather in Bandung wasn't in very good condition with moderate precipitation and some thunder. Broken clouds and visibility limited from . ATC:"Merpati five six zero one, maintain one two five" Fierda later decreased the plane's altitude from . Fierda already asked Jakarta Control Tower about the descent. Fierda decided to do a visual approach to the airport. Sumardi, the ACO, told Fierda to contact the tower if she saw the runway and Fierda agreed.
But this contact was never made by the aircraft, and the aircraft disappeared from Jakarta's radar. The plane went missing over the mountains. A search and rescue team was assembled by the National Search and Rescue Agency, consisting of Cisurupan military, one platoon from Yon 303 Cikajang Garut, Garut police and National Air Force Army consisting of ten people. Local residents and villagers also helped the operation.