Qualla: Sixty Seconds Over Banjarmasin

Sixty Seconds Over Banjarmasin: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ken Fielding, CC BY-SA 3.0. The flight was supposed to last forty-five minutes. Banjarmasin to Sampit, a short hop across the swampy lowlands of South Kalimantan, the kind of route that barely gives the cabin crew time to offer drinks. On December 7, 1996, Dirgantara Air Service Flight 5940 lifted off from Syamsudin Noor International Airport at 3:30 in the afternoon with fifteen passengers and two crew members aboard a CASA C-212 Aviocar, a sturdy Spanish-designed turboprop built under license in Indonesia. Approximately sixty seconds later, the right engine failed. What followed was a chain of miscommunication, lost control, and catastrophic impact that killed nineteen people and left a single survivor in the wreckage of a gas plant three kilometers from the runway.

Image: Ken Fielding | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sixty Seconds Over Banjarmasin: A Workhorse in Trouble

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ken Fielding, CC BY-SA 3.0. The CASA C-212 Aviocar was designed for exactly this kind of flying. A high-winged, twin-turboprop transport with short takeoff and landing capability, it was built to serve remote airstrips and regional routes across rugged terrain. Indonesia had produced the aircraft under lice...

Image: Ken Fielding | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sixty Seconds Over Banjarmasin: The Wrong Words at the Worst Moment

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ken Fielding, CC BY-SA 3.0. About a minute after takeoff, the right engine malfunctioned. In a twin-engine aircraft, losing one engine is serious but survivable, provided the crew follows established procedures. Captain Herybert radioed the tower to report the problem, but in the stress of the moment, the c...

Image: Ken Fielding | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sixty Seconds Over Banjarmasin: Into the Gas Plant

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ken Fielding, CC BY-SA 3.0. The aircraft came down on the rooftops of PT Barox Utama Jaya, a factory that produced oxygen tanks and acetylene, three kilometers short of the runway. The impact tore through the facility's structures and triggered explosions as the aircraft's fuel ignited volatile gases stored...

Image: Ken Fielding | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sixty Seconds Over Banjarmasin: One Man Walking

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ken Fielding, CC BY-SA 3.0. Irianto became the sole survivor of Flight 5940. The official investigation determined that the crew lost control after the right engine malfunctioned, but the report noted the communication error and the difficulty the crew faced managing an asymmetric thrust condition during th...

Image: Ken Fielding | CC BY-SA 3.0