Sriwijaya Air what we know
A Boeing jet carrying 62 folks lost contact with air traffic controllers Saturday in Indonesia after quickly dropping altitude, with particles believed to be from the airplane noticed within the Java Sea.
Sriwijaya Air flight 182, operated with a Boeing 737-500, took off from Jakarta at about 1:56 p.m. native time and misplaced contact with the management tower at 2:40 p.m., mentioned Indonesian Transportation Ministry spokesperson Adita Irawati.
The incident comes a day after the one-year anniversary of the taking pictures down of a Ukraine International Airlines flight in Iran with 176 folks aboard, one in every of two main airline crashes in 2020. And it comes simply over two years after a Boeing 737 Max crashed in Indonesia, killing 189.
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Here’s what we know:
What is Sriwijaya Air?
Sriwijaya Air, primarily based in Jakarta, Indonesia, began flying in 2003 and usually carries almost 1 million passengers a month, in keeping with the airline’s web site. It is a reduction provider with low fares and costs, a la Spirit, Allegiant and Frontier within the United States.
The airline principally flies routes inside Indonesia however has restricted worldwide service to Malaysia and China, in keeping with the aviation information agency Cirium. Saturday’s flight from Jakarta was sure for the island of Borneo, which is about an hour away by air.
The airline is the fifth largest airline in Indonesia primarily based on flights, accounting for 10% of Indonesia flights final yr, in keeping with Cirium. Lion Air is Indonesia’s largest provider.
Sriwijaya Air is scheduled to fly 4,300 flights this month, in contrast with 26,000 flights for Lion Air, Cirium says. In comparability, Southwest Airlines, the most important home provider within the U.S., has 62,000 flights scheduled in January.
Was the airplane a Boeing 737 Max?
Saturday’s flight, Sriwijaya Flight 182, was on a Boeing 737-500.
It was a part of the airplane producer’s 737 “classic” lineup, which ended manufacturing in December 1999, in keeping with Boeing.
Southwest Airlines, which solely flies Boeing jets, was the launch buyer for the 737-500, ordering 20 of the jets in 1987 and receiving its first supply in 1990. Southwest retired its final 737-500 in 2016.
The airplane concerned within the incident was delivered to Sriwijaya in 2012, in keeping with PlaneSpotters.net.
The airplane was 26 years previous and was beforehand within the fleet of Continental Airlines and, later, merger companion United Airlines, in keeping with the web site.
Boeing has had a bruising couple of years following two crashes of the Boeing 737 Max, which killed 376 folks. The airplane was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration and different aviation regulatory authorities in March 2019 and solely not too long ago certified to fly once more.
This week, Boeing settled criminal charges introduced by the U.S. Department of Justice for defrauding the FAA.
“Boeing’s employees chose the path of profit over candor by concealing material information from the FAA concerning the operation of its 737 Max airplane and engaging in an effort to cover up their deception,” the DOJ mentioned.
Boeing can pay greater than $2.5 billion, together with a penalty of $243.6 million, compensation funds to 737 Max airline prospects of $1.77 billion and a $500 million fund for the sufferer’s beneficiaries.
The airplane within the Sriwijaya crash doesn’t have the software program that was on the heart of the Max crashes. Boeing added software program to the airplane’s flight laptop that will work within the background so the Max would really feel to pilots like earlier variations of the 737. It was known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, and it proved to have severe flaws. In each the crashes, pilots wrestled to maintain their plane aloft as MCAS repeatedly pushed the nostril down. They had been unable to disengage the system, which ultimately despatched them into dives from which they might not recuperate.
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The airplane was 26 years previous. Isn’t that historic?
Anthony Brickhouse, an aviation accident investigator and affiliate professor of aerospace security at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, mentioned the very first thing he puzzled when he heard in regards to the lacking jet was whether or not it was a 737 Max.
With that issue out of the equation, he mentioned investigators will give attention to three broad areas as they fight to determine what occurred to Sriwijaya Flight 182: the human ingredient, the airplane and the surroundings on the day of the flight, most notably climate.
The Boeing 737-500’s age shall be on the desk however nobody will assume it is in charge.
“Just because a plane is 26 years old doesn’t automatically mean that it’s unsafe,” Brickhouse said.
He said travelers in the United States consider a 26-year-old plane old because airlines are constantly refreshing their fleets. Florida-based Spirit Airlines, for example, constantly brags that its average aircraft age is 5.6 years.
But a plane’s age is not the best measure of its life span, the number of takeoffs and landings and flight hours are more important, Brickhouse said.
“The age of the airplane would not essentially inform us so much,” Brickhouse mentioned. “It’s a lot deeper than that.”
Another factor that will be under consideration in this case: Indonesia’s relatively poor record on aviation safety.
“Over the previous 15 years or so that they’ve undoubtedly had some main security challenges with completely different airways,” Brickhouse mentioned.
Contributing: Chris Woodyard, The Associated Press
