Description

On 19 October 2015, the landing of an ATR 72-600 (PK-GAF) being operated by Garuda on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Kupang to Ende as GAI2017 was mishandled in day VMC and, after a minor runway excursion, the landing attempt was abandoned and a 40 minute diversion to the next intended stop at Komodo was flown without further event other than split control column authority. When the engineer meeting the aircraft there reported finding grass and dirt on the right side of the aircraft and reported this to the Captain, he was only told that there had been several bounces at Ende but not also about the runway excursion. The sixteen passengers on board for the investigated event were uninjured and the aircraft was undamaged.

Investigation

After the engineer had re-connected the pitch control system and obtained approval to release the aircraft to service, the same crew continued with their final rostered flight leg to Denpasar uneventfully. Following their arrival there, the crew reported the occurrence at Ende to their Chief Pilot but did not mention that it had included a runway excursion.