Locals fly home incident-free
By Rosli Abidin Yahya 

Eleven people were injured during a bomb blast at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta early Sunday morning. But the incident did not pose any problems for Bruneians as the first flight to Bandar Seri Begawan from Jakarta had only been scheduled for 8.20 pm, almost 14 hours after the tragedy. The bomb exploded at the domestic departure area of the airport, far from where international flight passengers normally checked in, according to returning Bruneians.

Pg Hj Abu Bakar bin Pg Hj Othman, a Bruneian businessman said that he, along with his family and a friend, were still at the hotel when the bomb exploded.

"We were still sleeping when the bomb exploded. We would not be near the airport anyway because our flight was at 8.20 pm," he said.

He added that they went to the airport at about 5 pm Sunday, and out of curiosity went near the bombsite.

"We saw debris at the blast site at the KFC fast-food restaurant, the Sky Cafe Restaurant and Coffee House, and at the Garuda Indonesia ticket counter," he said.

"However, the blast site was cordoned off by the police until we left Jakarta for Bandar Seri Begawan on that day," he said.

Terminal F is one of the most crowded passenger terminals with about 7,000 passengers passing through every day.

The terminal is said to accommodate passengers travelling on the domestic flights of Garuda Indonesia and Lion Air airlines. According to witnesses, the bomb was placed under a wooden bench and exploded at about 6.30 am Sunday, injuring 11 people.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin