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Govt gets tough after Lion Air crash
Searching for answers: Personnel from the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), National Police and National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) sift through the belongings of passengers of the crashed Lion Air flight JT610 at the Lion Air Search Center in Tanjung Priok Port, North Jakarta, on Wednesday
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earching for answers: Personnel from the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), National Police and National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) sift through the belongings of passengers of the crashed Lion Air flight JT610 at the Lion Air Search Center in Tanjung Priok Port, North Jakarta, on Wednesday. Sonar used by a joint search team reportedly detected a ping from the aircraft’s black box at a depth of 32 meters below sea level.(JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
In a stern move to improve the country’s aviation industry, the government has tightened scrutiny on the airline company and aircraft manufacturer involved in the fatal crash that is believed to have killed 189 people earlier this week.
The Transportation Ministry ordered on Wednesday Lion Air, the airline flying flight JT610 that crashed into the Java Sea on Monday morning, to suspend its technical director and a staff member suspected to have been in charge of giving approval for the aircraft to fly despite earlier technical problems.
The move came after the ministry ordered the inspection of all 11 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, the same mode as the aircraft used for flight JT610, flown by Indonesian carriers to assess the airworthiness of the aircraft.
“All findings will be reported to the KNKT [National Transportation Safety Commission]. The KNKT will decide what procedures to take next,” said Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi on Wednesday.
The ministry is also set to conduct a special audit by sending its special audit inspectors to the company, also known as PT Lion Mentari Airlines, and the carriers’s maintenance facility, Batam Aero Technic, to conduct an audit.
The country’s aviation industry is notorious worldwide for its frequent accidents, with all Indonesian carriers banned from operating in European Union and United States airspace from 2007 to 2016.
The industry had only just recovered its reputation this year with the EU lifting its ban on all Indonesian carriers in June. The US transport authorities removed a similar ban two years ago.
The Lion Air crash has once again put Indonesia’s safety record into the spotlight.
Aviation safety is crucial in Indonesia, as it is an archipelagic nation with thousands of islands, making air travel a major means of transportation. The latest accident is a bitter wake up call for Indonesia to get serious about improving its aviation safety.
Lion Air, currently the largest carrier in the country and the second largest carrier in Southeast Asia, is among those that have recorded frequent accidents.
Since it was again permitted to fly in European airspace in 2016, four more accidents have occurred.
In 2016, a Lion Air flight departing from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, overran the runway, with no injuries recorded. In 2017, a Boeing aircraft clipped a Wings Air plane as it landed at Kualanamu Airport in North Sumatra. No one was injured.
In April and August, two Lion Air aircraft skidded off the runway of Jalaluddin Tantu Airport, Gorontalo. The accidents have added to long delays and baggage theft that has tainted the airline’s reputation.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said the government needed to tighten up on passenger safety management.
“There are no countries in this world that expect such airplane accidents to occur. I have directed the [transportation] minister to be stricter on passenger safety management and aviation safety,” Jokowi told the press.
Budi said the temporary suspension of the Lion Air employees was a necessary part of the ministry’s investigation.
“From our observation and based on the [technical director’s] job description, we conclude that an airline’s airworthiness is the technical director’s responsibility,” he said
Lion Air spokesperson Danang Mandala confirmed on Wednesday that the airline had suspended the employees. “We are following the commands from the regulators and we will accommodate the needs of the investigation. Everything is still ongoing [regarding the investigation].”
Air Transportation Director General Act M. Pramintohadi said on Wednesday that all Boeing 737 MAX 8 operated by Lion Air and flag carrier Garuda Indonesia were subjected to special airworthiness tests. Currently, Lion Air has 10 Boeing 737 MAX 8 in its fleet, while Garuda has one.
The inspection found no irregularities in the aircraft.
Separately, search and rescue teams have sent 48 body bags to the National Police’s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team at the Soekanto Police Hospital in East Jakarta. Only one victim has been identified.
KR Baruna Jaya I, a research vessel owned and operated by the Assessment and Application of Technology Agency (BPPT), has picked up a signal believed to be from the black box of flight JT610.
Diver teams will be sent to search the location on Thursday.
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