JAKARTA, 20 July 2002 - A small single-engine plane made a crash landing on the Jagorawi toll road, only hundreds of meters from the Cililitan toll gate in East Jakarta, killing the pilot and injuring the three passengers, including an Australian, and two motorists. The pilot, Brig. Gen. Bakat Purwanto, 47, was dead on arrival at the Indonesian Christian University (UKI) Hospital. The three other people on board were Michael Watson, a 58-year-old Australian police officer, Andreas Tanus, 49, who is a local consultant, and his six-year-old son, Matthew Tanus. "I had been flying many times with Pak Bakat ... Today, we just wanted to look around the city," Watson, who was a friend of the pilot, told The Jakarta Post.
Shortly after the plane took off, however, the engine stopped. "We had no option but to go down as the plane has only a single engine," Watson said. Watson said that Bakat decided to make an emergency landing, after the Jabero 400 engine stopped. "However, as most areas in Halim are housing complexes, he chose to land on the highway to minimize the risks and victims," Watson added. Witnesses said that the forced landing did not go smoothly as the plane first hit a tree before its left side scraped the toll road fence and then collided with some passing cars. The plane was badly damaged and was upturned.
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