Jakarta (ANTARA News) - State Enterprises Minister Mustafa Abubakar has asked the management of Merpati Nusantara Airlines to increase its safety flight standards to reduce the human error factor.

"We were summoning the management and directors of Merpati to ask their report on the results of their hearing with the House of Representatives (DPR)," the minister said here on Friday.

He said that the supervision standard would also be raised to a level equal to a deputy director from the previous level of a general manager.

Flight standards must meet all items of requirements that have been decided, the minister said.

"If for examples there are 12 items that have to be met by a flight but three of them are not met, then that is a human error. The items of requirements must fully be met," the minister said.

Merpati is now on the spotlight following the crash of its MA-60 airplane which killed 25 people in Kaimana Bay, West Papua, recently.

Although the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) is still investigating the plane crash, Mustafa said there was an indication of a human error and weather factor.

"At that time visibility was only about two kilometers and it was raining heavily. The normal visibility is about 5 km. This disturbed flight maneuver and is classified as human error," he said.(*)

Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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