Plane intercepted by Indonesian jets fined S$6,300

The Singapore-registered plane that had illegally flown into Riau airspace was fined Rp60 million (S$6,300) before being released on Oct 29, ST Aerospace confirmed on Thursday (Oct 30)."

Our top priority was to bring our aircraft and crew back to Singapore earliest possible while we continue to seek clarification with the authorities on the matter, and make necessary changes to the flight plan as required," a ST Aerospace spokesperson told Channel NewsAsia.

ST Aerospace's confirmation came after the Indonesian media reported about the fine on Thursday. 

Local news site Tempo.co quoted Colonel (PNB) Tedi Rizalhadi, Commander of the Supadio Pontianak Air Base, as saying: "In line with the laws and the decision by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, they were fined Rp60 million which goes into the State Treasury, for entering the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI) without permission."

The plane was released as it was found to have posed no danger, and the administrative and penalty requirements have also been met, the Commander added, according to a separate Merdeka.com report.

The C90GTi King Air plane owned by Singapore Technologies (ST) Aerospace returned to Seletar Airport at 7.18pm on Wednesday. The incident occurred during the return route of a familiarisation training flight for its commercial pilot trainees. The aircraft was passing through a portion of Indonesian airspace, which was part of the filed flight plan.

It was flying from Sibu Airport in Sarawak to Seletar Airport in Singapore when it was intercepted by the Indonesian jets and ordered to land at the Supadio military airbase in Pontianak, Kalimantan.

A spokesperson for ST Aerospace told Channel NewsAsia on Wednesday that the required approvals had been sought before the flight. The airspace above the Riau islands comes under the Singapore Flight Information Region (FIR), according to boundaries established by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

On Thursday, First Air Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto of the Indonesia military was quoted by Merdeka.com as saying: "We hope that the air region known as Singapore FIR will quickly be taken over and taken charge of by Indonesia with the name Jakarta FIR, to uphold our national priorities."