PLANE FLYING BLIND OVER INDONESIA AIR

PLANE carrying 145 passengers flew for hours without navigation and communications systems over Indonesia before making a safe emergency landing.

The systems on the Boeing 737-300, of Indonesian regional airline Adam Air, broke down 20 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta's international airport at 10.20am on Saturday, according to Kompass newspaper.

The pilot flew over the island of Java without knowing where he was going for about four hours after finding the problem. He made an emergency landing at 2.45pm on the eastern island of Sumba after seeing a runway, which was only 1800m long.

Boeing 737-300s usually need at least 2200m to land and take off. No one aboard the plane, which had been bound for the South Sulawesi province capital of Makassar,
was injured.

Passengers were not told of the problems during the flight, Kompass said, although many suspected something was wrong as the plane kept changing altitudes. An investigation has been launched. (Source: Herald Sun)

The good thing, no one panicked.