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JAKARTA - INDONESIA'S flight safety has been rated sixth from the bottom out of 62 countries in the world, according to data from the Aviation Safety Network (ASN) cited by an Indonesian official.
'Indonesia follows Congo, Sudan, Nigeria, Russia and Iran for bad commercial flight safety record,' Mr Budhi Suyitno, director-general of air transportation at the Transportation Ministry, was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying.
ASN, an international flight safety institution, has recorded seven fatal accidents in Indonesia which killed a number of passengers between 2002 and 2006, he said.
The data did not include the recent accidents of Adam Air on Jan 1, 2007, and Garuda Indonesia on March 7, 2007.
Given the bad safety record and the major concerns of the international community, Mr Budhi said it was imperative that Indonesian flight regulators and operators work harder to improve the country's flight safety.
The news followed the banning of 51 Indonesian airlines, including national carrier Garuda, from European airspace due to safety concerns.
No Indonesian airline currently flies to nations in the EU.
However, the ban obliges tourist agencies, if they sell package tours using Indonesian carriers, to warn customers that such airlines are unsafe.
The US Federal Aviation Administration has downgraded Indonesia to its lowest category. Saudi Arabia - the destination for more than 160,000 Indonesian Muslim pilgrims each year - has dropped a threat to ban Garuda's flights.
In January, a plane belonging to budget carrier Adam Air crashed into the sea off Sulawesi island. All 102 on board are presumed dead.
In March, a Garuda plane with 140 people on board overshot the runway in Yogyakarta on Java island and burst into flames, killing 21 people.
Mr Budhi admitted that a number of flight regulations were not effective and even overlapping, so the Transportation Ministry had proposed a draft law on aviation in Indonesia.
Noting that the number of air passengers in Indonesia was increasing by an average of 20 per cent a year, he said the draft was now already in place and it was up to the Indonesian Parliament on when it wanted to discuss it.
He added that fatal air accidents did not occur only in developing countries, but also in advanced countries such as Russia and the United States.
The US ranked 10th in the worst flight safety records, although the international community believed that its aviation industry has developed very well, the official added.
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