Airport workers caused consternation yesterday by cutting off the tail of the wrecked Garuda passenger jet lying in a twisted, melted mess at the end of Yogyakarta runway, and painting out its company logo and registration number.The dawn cover-up followed a similar attempt at concealing the identity of a crashed Adam Air Boeing 737 just two weeks ago, after what was described as a "hard landing" at Surabaya airport, in east Java, Indonesia. All passengers escaped from that incident unharmed, but the jet broke in two.
Indonesian air safety officials - including Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa - are facing tough questions about whether the country is serious about improving its appalling record.
Wednesday morning's tragedy, in which the 6am service from Jakarta burst into flames after a crash landing, was the latest in a string of serious mishaps, including the New Year's Day disappearance of an Adam Air jet over Sulawesi.
Garuda officials refused to comment yesterday on why all identifying marks on their aeroplane were removed so quickly. Although safety officials have agreed there should be no tampering with the crash scene, the yellow police tape stretched around the site has provided little obstacle to anyone who wants to enter.
As Indonesian and Australian investigators gathered at the scene to make preliminary assessments of what went wrong with the landing, the crew of another Garuda service from Jakarta posed for photographs around the wreck of Flight 200.
Co-pilot Antonius, asked whether he considered the notoriously short and bumpy runway at Yogyakarta's Adisucipto airport a particular challenge for experience pilots, shrugged and said: "It should be well within the limits of one's ability".
As his fellow crew members inspected the blackened remains and Australian investigators discussed with their Indonesian counterparts the next steps in the investigation, Captain Antonius conceded there was a prevailing westerly wind at the strip that one had to take account of. However beyond that, there was little that was extraordinary about the runway, he suggested.
Sightseers gathered at the crash site yesterday and tramped around the mud, increasing the difficulty of investigators' task.
At the city's Sardjito teaching hospital whose morgue has been pressed into service to deal with the dead bodies, victims' families gathered in the hope their loved ones' remains could be quickly identified. Many were beginning to turn their anger to the country's failing transport regulation system, including one woman, Linda, who said she didn't blame Garuda or the government directly, since "this is a disaster, and that can happen to anyone".
"But it's a lesson for the government - why are there so many accidents? As a passenger, I don't feel safe. Previously, I thought the safest one was Garuda - but now they're affected as well.
"I don't know what we have to travel on now to feel safe.
"I know that unless it's an emergency, I won't go by air any more."