Plane skids of runway in Indonesia

Aircraft was an Adam Air jetliner
JAKARTA, Indonesia The Boeing 737-400's right wing, hydraulic system and rear landing gear were damaged when the plane skidded 245 feet into a grass field on Batam island, said Pantun Banjarnahor, chief of operations at Hang Nadim Airport.

The plane was carrying 176 passengers and crew from the capital, Jakarta, he said, adding that five were hospitalized with head and neck injuries.

The accident - the third involving low-cost carrier Adam Air in just over a year - came as the European Union was reviewing a ban imposed on Indonesian carriers following accidents in 2007 that killed more than 120 people.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration also downgraded Indonesia's rating to its lowest category.

It was not immediately clear what went wrong on Monday.

Danke Drajat, an Adam Air spokesman, said the airplane was reported to be in "good condition" after an inspection in December and blamed poor weather for the latest incident.

But Pantun said the visibility had been good enough for the aircraft to land safely.

The airport was closed for more than two hours, causing an unknown number of flight cancelations.

Last year, an Adam Air aircraft plunged into the sea from 10,000 meters (33,000 feet) on New Year's Day, killing all 102 people on board. The fuselage of another Adam Air plane split in half after a hard landing a few weeks later, but no one was seriously hurt. And in March 2007 a Garuda Indonesia plane careened off a runway and burst into flames, leaving 21 dead.

The Indonesian government responded by carrying out a review of its 20 carriers, concluding that none met all safety requirements. It ordered them to improve their records or face possible closure.

 

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