Garuda Suffers a Dent in its Amsterdam Schedule

(9/6/2010)

Garuda 089 scheduled to depart from Amsterdam to Jakarta on Thursday, September 2, 2010, was delayed when a cargo truck at Schiphol airport struck the Airbus being prepared to departure.

Detik.com quotes Garuda's vice-president for corporate communications, Pujobroto, as saying, "the result of the incident, the cargo door of the Garuda aircraft was damaged the plane was unable to depart as scheduled."

The 212 passengers scheduled to leave on the flight were diverted to alternate flights, while others were boarded at hotels near the airport while waiting for the next Garuda departure to Jakarta.

Replacement parts from Airbus were ordered, the installation of which kept the plane grounded for 4 days.

Pujo expressed his disappointment with the collision, blaming the incident on poor ground management at the Amsterdam airport. "Things like this do not need to happen," he said.

The temporary grounding of the Airbus 330-200 aircraft compelled Garuda to shift another aircraft of the same model and make from its Melbourne and Sydney service. In turn, a Boeing 747-400 was shifted to service the Australian routes until the damaged aircraft could be returned to service.