Distraught kin confront airline boss
We lost our child, but there was no empathy that Lion Air showed to us
Father of passenger Shandy Johan Ramadhan
jakarta — Distraught and angry relatives of those killed when a Lion Air jet crashed last week have confronted the airline’s co-founder during a meeting on Monday arranged by Indonesian officials.
Rusdi Kirana, the co-founder, was not invited to speak by Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi, who moderated the meeting between relatives and the officials who are overseeing the search effort and accident investigation.
But he stood and bowed his head after angry and distraught family members demanded that Kirana, who with his brother Kusnan Kirana founded Lion Air in 1999, identify himself.
“Lion Air has failed,” said a man who identified himself as the father of passenger Shandy Johan Ramadhan, a prosecutor in a district of the island where the flight was headed. “I want Mr. Rusdi Kirana and his team to pay attention,” he said. “Since the time of the crisis, I was never contacted by Lion Air. We lost our child, but there was no empathy that Lion Air showed to us.”
Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of the National Transportation Safety Committee, said that information downloaded from the jet’s flight data recorder is consistent with reports that the plane’s speed and altitude were erratic. Searchers are still trying to locate the cockpit voice recorder.
Relatives questioned why the Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane had been cleared to fly after suffering problems on a previous flight on Sunday from Bali to Jakarta. It suffered a rapid descent after takeoff that terrified passengers. —