I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this airline before, but there’s a company based in Indonesia that has hundreds of ex-pat pilots, and it might just be the most dangerous job in aviation…
In this post:
Susi Air, the airline with rookie pilots flying to remote places
I stumbled upon a fascinating YouTube series about Susi Air, an airline based in West Java, Indonesia. The airline operates a fleet of nearly 50 props, with everything from the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, to the Pilatus PC-6 Porter. Okay, great… why is that interesting?
Well, for one, the company operates what can only be described as some of the world’s most challenging aviation missions. The airline operates flights in all kinds of mountainous regions, and lands on tiny makeshift air strips on the side of mountains.
Susi Air transports both passengers and essential supplies, including to some remote tribes that otherwise have very little contact with the outside world.
The airline reportedly almost exclusively has ex-pat pilots. A vast majority of the pilots are brand new to the industry, and are trying to build their hours, so they can work for one of the big carriers, and advance their careers. This is an airline for adventure seekers, or pilots who have simply exhausted all other options for finding their first job.
Below are a few videos from the series about the lives of Susi Air pilots. If you’re into aviation, I can’t recommend this enough. If you’re just going to watch one episode, I’d recommend checking out the second one below, because it really gives you a sense of the kinds of missions these guys fly. How unusual to be a sole pilot flying a plane to a tribe that has a history of cannibalism, where you’re met by guns.
Working at Susi Air is legitimately dangerous
Pilots with limited experience operating some of the most challenging flights imaginable? What could possibly go wrong? Well, a lot, unfortunately.
The carrier’s safety record seems to have improved a bit in recent times, but just to give you a sense of how rough it was, in the roughly seven months September 2011 and April 2012, the airline had three fatal accidents, resulting in hull losses.
More recently, in February 2023, the airline even dealt with an extended hostage crisis. A pilot from New Zealand was taken hostage in the Papua province of Indonesia. Papuan separatist fighters abducted the pilot, and set the aircraft on fire.
The captors reportedly refused to release him unless Indonesia would recognize and free Papua “from Indonesian colonialism.” He remained in captivity for over 18 months, and was only released in September 2024. How did I never hear of that?!?
However, some people seem really happy there, like the below video, about why you should become a Susi Air pilot…
Bottom line
Susi Air is an Indonesian carrier operating a lot of flights around Indonesia, with small aircraft. The airline very much operates in the Indonesian equivalent of the “Wild West,” landing on tiny air strips on the sides of mountains, to deliver essential goods to tribes.
The juxtaposition here is that you have some of the least experienced pilots operating some of the most challenging flights, given that Susi Air primarily has ex-pat pilots who are looking to build up hours. While the carrier’s safety record seems to have improved in recent years (minus a hostage crisis), this is still quite a career.
Anyone else find this Susi Air operation to be fascinating?
As was mentioned, Missionary Aviation Fellowship has been flying in that county in others for decades. I have a friend that was an MAF missionary pilot in the 1970s and following. JARS and others mission groups also have bush pilots. My former pastor was a linguistics missionary in Papua New Guinea and helped clear land to create landing strips for JARS planes in the 1980s.
That PC-6 Porter is 1 of the capable and awesome aircraft ever built.
Dave (British guy flying his mum) seems to be quite the individual...
immigrant pilots* ;)
I've seen a lot of people conflate the terms "ex-pat" and "immigrant" recently, although in my eyes they are actually two different concepts. To be clear, I understand where many of the arguments come from and I have no issue with pointing out that there is no fundamental difference between someone from a poor country that moves abroad for work and someone from a wealthy country that moves abroad to do the same. However, "ex-pat"...
I've seen a lot of people conflate the terms "ex-pat" and "immigrant" recently, although in my eyes they are actually two different concepts. To be clear, I understand where many of the arguments come from and I have no issue with pointing out that there is no fundamental difference between someone from a poor country that moves abroad for work and someone from a wealthy country that moves abroad to do the same. However, "ex-pat" to me has always implied that one's presence in a foreign country has some generally defined time-period after which the person will return home or otherwise leave the country. In other words, they are not planning on settling in a country, whereas "immigrant" means to me that a person's presence in a country is meant to be more or less permanent. My mom moved from Japan in the 80's and has lived here for 40 or so years, she is clearly an immigrant. However a lot of the managers at the Japanese company where she works are on 2-3 year fixed terms and will return to Japan afterward. They would be clearly distinct to me as ex-pats. Since these pilots mostly seem to be in Indonesia temporarily to gain flight hours and will likely seek longer-term work elsewhere, I don't think there's anything wrong with referring to them as ex-pats in this case.
Not just defined time period. If you move willingly, that’s immigration.
If you move because your company sends you for a task and will repatriate you back at the end of your assignment, that is expat assignments… so no, english teachers are not expats.
They’re not immigrants, they’re emigrants
There's a British documentary about Susi air 'the worst place to be a pilot'
To he fair you never heard of it because like most Americans you live in a bubble.
To be fair, you’re clueless.
Reminds me of the Bourdain episode in the Congo where he highlights the ex-pat pilots that do these cargo runs around the country in ancient Soviet aircraft.
I would love to fly on this!
You should check out Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), they also fly to some of the remote areas in Indonesia.
One sample search: Gorontalo to Bolaang Mongondow, a 45 minute flight, for $14. Mileage run!!
Where’s the first class section on these planes?