Large wing part breaks away from jetliner in Indonesia

Within several minutes after a jetliner took off from Indonesia’s largest airport a piece of wing 2-meter-long (7-foot-long) broke away. The plane managed to land safely.

Photo: Large wing part breaks away from jetliner in Indonesia

The incident late Wednesday involved a Boeing 737 operated by local carrier Batavia Airways.

It will add to concerns about the safety of flying in Indonesia , which suffered a series of accidents earlier this year that killed more than 120 people.

The wing section measuring around 2 meters by 1 1/2 meters (5 feet) fell from the plane around 15 minutes after it left Jakarta's Sukarno-Hatta airport on a domestic flight, said Totok Suwarto, a senior official there.

Anton Situmeang, a spokesman for Batavia Air, said the plane underwent a full service "around one or two months ago," adding that a full investigation into the incident had been ordered.

Suwarto said the plane returned to Sukarno-Hatta without incident.

Detik.Com news web site said the wing piece hit a house not far from the airport, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

Batavia Airways is one of scores of cheap airlines to appear in Indonesia in recent years.

As a result of the accidents earlier this year, the European Union blacklisted all of Indonesia's airlines and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration downgraded the nation's rating to its lowest category.

Experts say the industry is plagued by poor maintenance, rule-bending and a shortage of trained professionals.