Four Indonesian passenger planes have aborted flights or made emergency landing over the last two days due to various mechanical problems, mostly minor ones, as pilots increase awareness of flight safety following the Monday's air crash that killed 150 people.

A Boeing 737-400 operated by flag carrier Garuda Indonesia returned back to the Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali around 30 minutes after take-off Wednesday because the pilot noticed that the cockpit lamps shut-off.

At the same airport earlier in the day, an MD-82 belonging to the Wing Air was about to taxi down the runway for a take-off when the pilot suddenly announced a faulty engine.

"The plane was ready to take-off but went back to the parking ground. The pilot said something went wrong with his plane," airport staff Putu Arcana was quoted by the Detikcom online news service as saying.

The pilot asked all 151 passengers to wait at the passenger terminal when repairing underway.

On Tuesday, a Boeing 737-200 made a U-turn 10 minutes after take-off to go back to the Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Jakarta with pilot saying landing gear indicators kept flaming when the plane was airborne.

The plane is owned by the Mandala Airlines, whose another Boeing slammed into a residential area a few minutes after take- off from the Polonia Airport in the North Sumatra capital of Medan Monday, killing 103 people onboard and 47 others on the ground.

A more serious incident post the Mandala crash occurred when a Garuda's Boeing 737-400 carrying 82 passengers made an emergency landing on the Pekanbaru Airport in Riau province 40 minutes after departing from Medan Tuesday morning.

According to Garuda's version, the pilot made the unscheduled landing simply because the fuel indicators went off.

But passengers said they heard small explosion and the pilot announced engine failure on the right wing.

Calls are getting louder for both the government and air operators to enhance safety measures in the civil aviation following the Monday's crash, the country's worst air disaster after an Airbus A-300B4 hit a mountain in North Sumatra in September 1997, killing all 234 people onboard.

"We don't ask the (transportation) minister to resign. We only ask the government to give a priority to safety aspects and increase control of airlines and airport operators," said legislator Sofyan Mille, who heads the commission five in the House of Representatives overseeing transportation.

Local media reports said there have been over two dozen air accidents in the country since 2004.

"Monday's crash should be a reminder to all airline operators to never slacken off with their safety-first attitude," The Jakarta Post said in Wednesday's editorial.

Sofyan said the intense competition among low-cost carriers in the country's crowded market has forced many operators to cut spending on fleet maintenance.

Over the last five years, the number of low-cost carriers has grown to 22 in Indonesia. Such operators like Mandala and Wing Air, have rented old planes to save costs.

The Mandala's ill-fated Boeing was manufactured in 1981 but certified worth flying until 2016.

Mandala has recruited many pilots from the Air Force because their longer flight experience helps shorten training duration at Boeing, the company's spokesman Alexius Widjojo said Wednesday.

Co-pilot Daufir Effendi, who was perished Monday aboard the Mandala's Boeing, was an Air Force officer.

Source: Xinhua