Didn't you once write of an interesting mountain 'hideaway' near Padang - will we hear of any trouble there from latest natural disaster
julian | "March 7, 2007, 7:28 am" | #

That's a brilliant story though you don't mention the bit about when the plane started to land how the pilots couldn't see a darned thing out of the cabin windows. At first they thought they were still in cloud but then they realised there was a thin strip of visibility along the edge of the windscreens which just about allowed them to see enough to land. It seems that the effect of flying through volcanic ash had sandblasted the glass on the widscreen effectively blinding the pilots.

A truly remarkable aviation escapade and one worth recalling today as sadly yet another Indonesian plane crashes, in Jogja this time.
Miko | "March 7, 2007, 9:40 am" | #

Air travel is jinxed after todays news.
julian | "March 7, 2007, 10:59 am" | #

are you sure it's only budget airlines that are affected?
indcoup | Homepage | "March 7, 2007, 12:29 pm" | #

Miko.
Follow the link I give to the Wikipedia account which has loads of details.
Jakartass | Homepage | "March 7, 2007, 3:08 pm" | #

Interesting coincidence: you say that the BA flight crew had difficulty getting Bali traffic control to understand "mayday". The same problem happened with flight BA 9 in the 80s. The captain repeatedly tried to get traffic control to clear a runway on the basis that "all four engines had failed". Air control kept saying that they understood that "number 4 engine had failed", but didn't see the need to clear the runway. Apparently a 747 can fly on only one engine.
Brett | Homepage | "March 20, 2007, 11:24 am" | #