The Sydney Morning Herald, January 10, 2007
Mystery of the Boeing that simply vanished
The fate of flight KI 574 may never become known, writes Lindsay Murdoch in
Jakarta.
REFRI WIDODO sounded worried. "The plane has been hit by crosswinds from the
starboard side," the pilot of Adam Air flight KI 574 radioed to air traffic control while
flying at 30,000 feet over a remote part of the Indonesian archipelago 10 days ago.
Ten minutes later, as winds of up to 137 kmh buffeted the aircraft carrying six crew
and 96 passengers, Widodo again contacted the air traffic controller at Makassar, on
Indonesia's Sulawesi island, and asked about the plane's position.
"OK," Widodo responded after the controller told him where he saw the plane on a
radar screen. Moments later the controller's screen went blank, thus prompting what
could become one of aviation's deepest mysteries.
How can a 40-metre Boeing 737-400 vanish without trace in an age of sophisticated
satellite monitoring and radar tracking?
No debris has been found despite a wide search of the area where the 18-year-old
low-cost airliner is presumed to have crashed into the sea or the jungle ravines of
western Sulawesi.
A report on Monday by an Indonesian Navy ship that it had detected three metal
objects on the ocean floor north of the town of Mamuju in West Sulawesi province was
yesterday being treated sceptically by Indonesian officials anxious not to further
increase the anguish of the relatives and friends of the plane's missing passengers
and crew.
If it is the plane, officials say, why isn't there any floating debris such as safety
jackets or seats?
Within hours of the plane's disappearance on New Year's Day, search officials had
wrongly announced that the plane's wreckage had been found and that 12 survivors
had made their way to a nearby village.
Bizarrely, they even quoted witnesses as saying, "There are bodies everywhere."
Search officials had apparently been quick to accept village rumours as fact,
prompting a flurry of ministerial apologies, a presidential inquiry and questions about
the conduct of the search.
The plane's disappearance has also raised questions about Indonesia's booming
airline industry, which has seen 19 new carriers take to the skies since deregulation
in 1999.
The last co-ordinates of the Adam Air plane were recorded by Singaporean
authorities, also causing concern about Indonesia's ability to monitor its own
airspace. Tempo magazine reported that equipment in Indonesia that should have
picked up signals recording the crash had been inoperative for a year and requests for
repairs had gone unanswered.
Government officials yesterday summoned airline owners to a meeting in Jakarta to
discuss safety and other concerns.
The owners were told enforcement agencies could not be everywhere and they were
asked to take more responsibility for their safety standards.
Transport safety officials admit not one airline operator has been prosecuted over
airline crashes or safety breaches in Indonesia in years.
Each year 30 million people board budget Indonesian carriers, many of which have
dubious safety records. More than 250 people have been killed in Indonesian air
crashes since 2004.
Last year alone there were 15 mishaps, many involving planes overshooting runways.
Adam Air, a budget carrier co-founded by Agung Laksono, the Speaker of Indonesia's
parliament, has been the focus of growing scrutiny. The Straits Times in Singapore
this week quoted sources who saw an official aviation report which reported that
"strange events" took place on the fight deck of an Adam Air plane that was forced to
make an emergency landing at a small airport on Lombok in February last year.
The plane was 400 kilometres off course. The next day it took off without approval and
before it could be examined by Indonesia's National Transport Safety Committee.
The Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, last week ordered that
reports of any similar aviation incidents in future be made public.
Seventeen Adam Air pilots resigned in May 2005, citing unsafe conditions. They were
accused by the company of breaking their contracts; the court case has not yet been
settled.
Sutan Solahudin, one of the pilots who quit, said he flew an Adam Air plane that had
damaged navigation equipment. "I was pressured by the owners over the phone to fly
the plane," he said.
Danang Parikesit, a senior researcher with Indonesia's Transport Society, a
non-government organisation that monitors airline safety, said yesterday deregulation
of the country's airline industry has not been accompanied by proper safety
enforcement.
He said there was no requirement, for example, for companies wanting an airline
licence in Indonesia to prove they had a good safety record.
The US Navy ship USNS Mary Sears yesterday was travelling to the area where the
Indonesian Navy reported finding metal objects on the seabed.
Copyright © 2005. The Sydney Morning Herald.
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