Australia pushes for Garuda crash pilot to be charged AUSTRALIA  is pressuring Indonesia to act against the Garuda pilot who crashed his airliner after ignoring warnings he was making a dangerous landing.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he had asked the embassy in Jakarta to press the Indonesians to take legal action against those responsible for the tragedy.

Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd went directly to the Indonesians, telephoning the secretary general of the department of foreign affairs Imron Cotan - a former Indonesian ambassador to Australia - saying the Australian people expected the pilots would be prosecuted.

Their moves follow the release of the Indonesian National Transport Safety Committee report of its investigation of the crash of the Garuda Airlines Boeing 737.

Australian journalists, diplomats and police were among those killed and injured when the aircraft overshot the runway and burst into flames.

Both the chief pilot and co-pilot survived.

The Indonesian report found the senior pilot, Marwoto Komar, approached the runway too fast and at too steep an angle, ignoring 15 electronic warnings plus pleas from the co-pilot to abort the landing and go round.

Although pilot error would appear to be the fundamental cause of the tragedy, the report did not reach that specific conclusion.

It pointed to other contributing factors such as the co-pilot failing to take over the controls and inadequate response of emergency services at the crash site.

National Transport Safety Committee chairman Tatang Kurniadi said the report was aimed a preventing further accidents and was not to be used as the basis for any legal action.

That sparked an immediate row in Australia.

Mr Downer said the report into the accident's cause was credible and should be taken seriously.

"From the Australian government's point of view, what we would like is the Indonesian authorities now to look into the possibility of prosecutions coming on the back of this report," he said.

Mr Downer said such an incident in Australia would result in an inquest with the outcome referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Mr Rudd said Mr Cotan had assured him the investigation into the crash was not finished.

"I said to him that the expectation of the Australian people was that this investigation of the pilots would be prosecuted to the absolute full," he told journalists in Sydney.

"Australian citizens died in this, Australian citizens were injured and injured grievously in this crash and many citizens of Indonesia were as well."

Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile - responsible for Australian aviation safety through his transport portfolio - said there should be a coronial inquiry which had the power to recommend criminal charges.

"I know that the families of the Australians who perished in that crash would like to see that course of action taken in Indonesia," he told reporters in north Queensland.

Source | http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22636149-663,00.html