Masamba – Makassar

On October 2, 2015 at 02:51 PM, Masamba – Makassar experienced a crash involving De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter, operated by Aviastar Mandiri, with the event recorded near Mt Bajaja South Sulawesi.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was flight at a mountains crash site.

10 people were known to be on board, 10 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 2, passengers on board: 8, passenger fatalities: 8, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. On 2 October 2015, a DHC-6 Twin Otter, registered PK-BRM, was being operated by PT. Aviastar Mandiri as a scheduled passenger flight with flight number MV 7503. The aircraft departed from Andi Jemma Airport, Masamba (WAFM)1 with the intended destination of Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport, Makassar (WAAA) South Sulawesi, Indonesia. On board the flight were 10 persons consisting of two pilots and eight passengers, including one company engineer. The previous flights were from Makassar – Tana Toraja – Makassar – Masamba – Seko - Masamba and the accident flight was from Masamba to Makassar which was the 6th sector of the day. The aircraft departed from Masamba at 1425 LT (0625 UTC2 ) with an estimated time of arrival at Makassar of 0739 UTC. The Pilot in Command (PIC) acted as Pilot Flying (PF) while the Second in Command (SIC) acted as Pilot Monitoring (PM). The flight was conducted under the Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and cruised at an altitude of 8,000 feet. At 0630 UTC, the pilot reported to Ujung Pandang Information officer that the aircraft passed an altitude of 4,500 feet and was climbing to 8,000 feet. The Ujung Pandang Information officer requested the pilot of the estimate time of aircraft position at 60 Nm out from MKS VOR/DME. At 0632 UTC, the pilot discussed about the calculation of estimate time to reach 60 Nm out from MKS and afterward the pilot informed Ujung Pandang Information officer that the estimate at 60 Nm was at 0715 UTC. At 0633 UTC, the Ujung Pandang Information officer informed the pilot to call when reaching 8,000 feet and was acknowledged by the pilot. At 0636 UTC, the pilot informed the Ujung Pandang Information officer that the aircraft had reached 8,000 feet and requested the squawk number (ATC transponder code). The Ujung Pandang Information officer acknowledged and gave the squawk number of A5616, which was acknowledged by the pilot. At 0637 UTC, the pilots discussed to fly direct to BARRU. BARRU is a town located at about 45 Nm north of Makassar. Both pilots agreed to fly direct and the SIC explained the experience of flying direct on the flight before. At 0651 UTC, the PIC told the SIC that he wanted to climb and one second later the CVR recorded the sound of impact.

Aircraft reference details include registration PK-BRM, MSN 741, year of manufacture 1981.