Garuda pilot wins appeal against jail sentence

Captain Marwoto Komar, who piloted the Garuda Boeing 737-400 which crash landed at Yogyakarta Airport in 2007, resulting in 21 deaths, has won an appeal against his two year prison sentence for negligence.

The Yogyakarta High Court “overturned charges of negligence and said he (Komar) did his best to save the plane and passengers,” said Muhammad Assegaf, a lawyer for Komar, reported Reuters.

The crash occurred after Komar failed to initiate a go around during landing, despite receiving a number of auditory warnings that the aircraft was travelling at over twice the maximum landing speed. The aircraft subsequently ran off the end of the runway at Yogyakarta and burst into flames. Five Australians were among the 21 people who died in the accident.