The Eagle Has Landed

No, it’s not an eagle, actually. It’s a Cessna Caravan carrying 12 passengers. The airplane that’s only a bit bigger than a fishing boat successfully landed at Krui airport today, at about 11.30. The landing ran smoothly with thousands of local people watching.

In the plane were some parliamentarians from Jakarta, officials from Transportation Department, and travelers. They were warmly welcomed by the premiere of Lampung Barat Drs. Mukhlis Basri, MM and his staffs and enthusiastic local people as well as school students.

The local people that had been gathered in the airport hours before the landing took place were very much overwhelmed by what they saw in front of them. Most of them must not have seen an actual airplane with their naked eyes in their whole life before. Even though Krui has existed since centuries ago, no airplane whatsoever has been landed on her land, but helicopters. And when one finally landed, thousand of people packed around, watching, and taking pictures with their camera.

In the meeting with the congregation in the airport building minutes after the landing, premiere Mukhlis Basri said that there are two stages of the development of the airport. “The first stage is in 2007-1018, and the second stage is from 2018-2027. This first stage is designed for small airplane like CN 230, while the second stage is planned for a bigger one like Boeing 737 airbus,” he says.

For the time being, Susi Air, the airlines that operate the airplane, and take the landing test, is ready to hold charter flight while being in preparation for regular flights. “It may take two or three months before we are ready to hold regular flights,” they are quoted as saying.

Distances between Krui airport and Bandarlampung is about 230 km via Kota Agung, and about 275 km via Liwa, the nearest town from Krui. The elevation of the airport is about 37 meters above sea level. And the distance between the nearest beach (Krui Left) and the airport is about 1.4 km.

Judging from the elevation, the airport is not likely to be struck by tsunami.

According to Oking Ganda Miharja, one of the passenger in the plane, it takes shorter to get to Jakarta from Krui than to get to Krui from Jakarta. It took one hour and 25 minutes to get to Krui, while it took only one hour and 5 minutes to get to Jakarta, he said in his Facebook status.