The Boeing 737-500 was carrying 40 adults, seven children and three babies, in addition to six active crew and another six crew as passengers on the flight heading to Pontianak, West Kalimantan.

While we share the grief of the families of the crash victims, the accident serves as a grim reminder to double efforts to improve safety standards as the core value of our aviation industry. Only over two years ago the crash of Lion Air flight JT619 captured international attention because it involved a brand-new Boeing 737-8 MAX. On Dec. 28, 2014, Air Asia flight QZ8501 flying from Surabaya, East Java, to Singapore, crashed into the Karimata Strait near Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan, with 162 fatalities. Previously, Adam Air flight KI574, crashed into the Makassar Strait near Polewali, West Sulawesi, on Jan. 1, 2007, killing all 102 people on board.

Indonesia had become a pariah state in terms of aviation safety with so many accidents and incidents, leading the European Union and United States to ban Indonesian airlines from operating in their airspaces. The ban has since been lifted thanks to various investments in technology and human resources, as well as updating regulations.

It is still too early to say what caused the Sriwijaya accident, although it shares a similar flight profile with those of the previous accidents. It will take months, if not years, before investigators find out what went wrong with the Sriwijaya flight.

In aviation safety management, accident analysis is focused on the 5M: man, machine, medium (weather), mission and management. What matters in aviation is that the aircraft is airworthy with proper maintenance management.

However, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did issue an emergency directive in July 2020 for the Boeing 737 family of aircraft types to pay attention to aircraft that have been stored or parked up because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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