Indonesia Plane Crash: What Happened to the Sriwijaya Air Jet?
January 12 2021 - 11:43AM
Dow Jones News
By WSJ Staff
Investigators in Indonesia are seeking to uncover why a
Sriwijaya Air jet crashed into the sea shortly after taking off on
Jan. 9. The incident involving a Boeing 737-500 came more than two
years after a Lion Air plane went down in the country resulting in
189 deaths.
What happened to the plane?
The Sriwijaya Air jet crashed into the Java Sea minutes after it
took off from Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, on Jan. 9. It was
carrying 62 people, including 10 children, on a domestic flight to
Pontianak, a city on Indonesia's Borneo island.
The plane departed at 2:36 p.m. and climbed to a maximum
altitude of 10,900 feet about four minutes later before beginning a
steep descent, according to aviation data provider Flightradar24.
It went missing at 2:40 p.m.
Divers and search crew located debris from the plane and human
remains around an area known as the Thousand Islands, to the north
of Jakarta. There were no survivors.
Why did the plane crash?
Investigators are counting on the so-called black boxes of the
Boeing 737-500 to help piece together what happened in the moments
before the crash and determine why SJ182 went down. One black box
-- the flight-data recorder -- has been pulled out of the sea.
What is known is that the plane made an unexpected turn in the
northwest direction shortly after takeoff, prompting air-traffic
controllers to ask the pilots why they were headed that way.
Seconds later, the aircraft disappeared from the radar.
Investigators are hoping to understand what caused the plane to
change direction.
Another question investigators are looking at is if weather
played a role in the accident. The flight was delayed that
afternoon because of bad weather. There was no distress call before
the plane went down, an investigator said.
What do we know about the plane?
The jet that crashed was a 26-year-old Boeing 737-500 that
Sriwijaya Air said was in good condition before the flight. The
aircraft didn't fly for nearly nine months last year as air travel
was severely reduced because of the coronavirus pandemic, but it
was inspected and declared airworthy before resuming flying
operations on Dec. 19, authorities said. It conducted 132 flights
after resuming operations, according to Flightradar24.
Sriwijaya Air began operating the aircraft in 2012. Before that,
the plane was flown by United Airlines, according to Flightradar24.
Boeing first delivered the plane in 1994 to Continental Airlines,
which was later acquired by Chicago-based United Airlines Holdings
Inc.
Was it the same model that crashed in Indonesia in 2018?
The aircraft that crashed in 2018, also in the Java Sea, was a
different model, a Boeing 737 MAX, the newest version of the
company's single-aisle jet, and was operated by a different
Indonesian airline, Lion Air. That Boeing model was involved in two
crashes -- the 2018 Indonesia crash and a second in Ethiopia in
2019 -- that together resulted in the deaths of 346 people, leading
regulators to ground the MAX fleet nearly two years ago. U.S.
aviation regulators in November cleared the 737 MAX to fly again
with passengers after approving a number of safety fixes.
The Boeing 737-500, involved in the recent crash in Indonesia,
is a much older model belonging to the Classic series. Boeing
rolled out the last Classic from its production line in 1999. A
relatively small number of 737-500s remain in operation around the
world.
How is the 737-500 aircraft different from the 737 Max?
The two models are different in many ways, but the most
important difference is that the 737-500 doesn't have the
flight-control system that was largely blamed for the two 737 MAX
crashes. Boeing has since added safeguards to the MAX system, known
as MCAS, to help keep pilots in control, and has updated related
pilot training and manuals.
What is Indonesia's air safety record?
Indonesia has a history of air safety problems, though it has
improved its standing in recent years. U.S. and European regulators
at various times have restricted flights of carriers based in the
country. Regulators cited, among other issues, lax government
oversight, inadequate pilot training and maintenance lapses.
But Indonesia's safety record and the view of foreign regulators
have improved in recent years. In 2016, the U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration upgraded Indonesia's status to the highest ranking
under the agency's international safety-assessment program. Two
years later, the European Union lifted all flight restrictions on
Indonesian carriers. In 2019, Indonesia had an accident rate below
the global average, according to International Civil Aviation
Organization statistics.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 12, 2021 11:28 ET (16:28 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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