All Sukhoi 100 sales in Indonesia suspended

JAKARTA. Indonesian sales of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 airplane, one of which crashed on Wednesday near the Mount Salak area in West Java, will be suspended until the causes of that accident have been thoroughly investigated.

"The investigation will find out whether the accident was the result of bad weather or human error," said Indra Djani, representative of PT Trimarga Rekatama, as quoted by kompas.com on Thursday.

PT Trimarga Rekatama is Sukhoi’s agent in Indonesia.

A newly established team consists of members from the National Committee for Transportation Safety (KNKT), as well as investigators from Russia will conduct investigation to uncover causes of the accident.

There are currently four buyers in Indonesia, who have expressed serious interest in buying the Russian-made aircrafts, including Sky Aviation that wants to buy 12 units and Queen Air wants six.

When asked whether the accident will have influence on any of the buyers' decision to make a purchase, Indra said that he "didn't want to speculate".

The Sukhoi Superjet 100 is a new model airplane that was built to help Russia develop its modern civilian aircraft industry. Russia also wanted to use the model to repair the negative image that the world has on Russian-made Soviet-era aircrafts.

The aircraft is able to carry 98 passengers with an operational range of 3,048 kilometers for the basic version and 4,578 km for long-range version with an altitude up to 12,200 meters. Its first flight was made in May 2008.

The Sukhoi Superjet 100 that was on Asian road show reportedly crashed near Mt. Salak after losing contact with air-traffic controllers on Wednesday afternoon.

A helicopter discovered the heavily damaged airplane at 9:15 a.m. on a hill near Mt. Salak at a height of 1,600 meters above sea level. (The Jakarta Post)