Indonesia flight crash

  • A Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 plunged into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff in Indonesia.
  • It has once again cast the limelight on the safety of the Indonesia's aviation industry.

POOR AVIATION IN INDONESIA

  • Indonesia's aviation record is one of the worst in Asia, with more civilian airliner passenger accidents since 1945 than any other country in the region.
  • The country has had several incidents linked to safety issues in the past, including poor maintenance, pilot training, communications or mechanical failures and air-traffic control problems.
  • In the last 15 years itself, there have been 6 air crashes killing 844 people.
  • In 2007, both the US and the EU banned all Indonesian carriers from their airspace for “not complying with international standards”.
  • The US lifted the ban in 2016 and the EU in 2018.

WHY POOR CONDITION

  • Poor weather: Indonesia has one of the highest incidences of thunderstorms and lightning strikes in the world, along with volcanic eruptions that spew out tonnes of ash into the air that is often sucked in by a jet’s engines, causing them to fail.
  • Communication failures have also been factors in crashes in Indonesia. 
  • Apathy of officials: An official after the 2018 Lion Air crash, which had killed 189 people, said “where there is transportation, there will be accidents”.

THE RECENT CRASH 

  • A Sriwijaya Air plane with 62 people on board lost contact after taking off from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on a domestic flight 
  • The Boeing 737-500 was en route to Pontianak in West Kalimantan.
  • The exact reason of crash would be known only after the discovery of the black box of plane.
  • However, the fact that the jet was flying in heavy rain and the Boeing Co. model was almost 27 years old is seen as contributing to the crash. 

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