Jakarta – The 26-year old Boeing 737-500 operated by Sriwijaya Air lost contact after leaving Jakarta. Boeing with the identification of SJY182 went missing five minutes after takeoff from Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta. The flight was headed to the airport in Pontianak Supadio International. The last contact with the aircraft was made at 14:40 local time. The plane was at an altitude of over 10,000 feet when it lost contact. There were 56 passengers and six crew onboard the aircraft so that the total of people on board was 62 people.
Since the loss of the aircraft, on the same day, the debris from the plane was found in the Thousand Islands region, in north Jakarta area. Search teams have found aircraft parts and human remains in the Java Sea and Navy divers have found the black box. The focus of the investigation now seems to be about the possibility of mechanical failure and / or pilot.
The incident showed that the track record of air transport safety in Indonesia has not significantly increased over the years. This incident is a warning to the airline industry to more closely follow international standard checking procedures. This is in line with the EU request to ban Indonesian airlines operating on their territory. The authorities are likely to apply pressure on Sriwijaya to improve compliance with the measures, regulations, maintenance, and other related checks. They also warn of other airlines for more attention to checking and maintenance machines. However, the track record of air safety in Indonesia is not expected to improve in the near future, unless there are significant changes to the way it operates flights in this country today.
Sriwijaya Air SJ182 plane was obtained in 2012 and has been operating ever since. The Indonesian government is likely to launch a full-scale investigation into the disappearance of Flight 182. The incident is likely to affect the traffic of domestic and international flights in Indonesia. Government can potentially implement precautions that could disrupt air traffic in Indonesia. Further information about the disappearance will be revealed in the coming days. Indonesia has a poor air safety records and Boeing has had a significant reputation damage after crash Boeing 737 MAX. In March 2019 some Boeing 737 MAX reported worldwide after 346 people were killed in two incidents, Lion Air Flight 610 on October 29, 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019.
Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) published a 322-page final report on the accident investigation in October 2018, Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX flight JT610 accident. This report does not explicitly state the sole cause for the accident, but the total list of 89 findings of the KNKT researchers found that about a lot of factors that caused the accident JT610 that killed all 189 passengers and crew on board. A key disclosure in the report is a review of flight operations quality assurance (FOQA) and maintenance records for JT610. As a result of the findings of this investigation, the KNKT issued a safety recommendation to Boeing, Lion Air, Aero Technic Batam, Indonesia’s Directorate-General for Transport (DGCA), the FAA, and others. Related to the recent Sriwijaya Air SJ182 accident, the investigation is still ongoing, and expected the same incident do not happen every year in Indonesia to give passengers a sense of security in the use of air transport.
Note: the report from the KNKT about the Lion Air accident in 2018 can be seen here (in Indonesian language).
