Black Box Search Continues as Indonesia Jet Wreckage Recovered

(Bloomberg) -- Indonesian investigators continued their search for the black boxes of the doomed Sriwijaya Air passenger jet, a Boeing Co.737-500 that hurtled into the Java Sea on Saturday with 62 people on board.

The aircraft, registered PK-CLC and with capacity for about 120 passengers, was on its fifth flight of the day when it crashed shortly after it took off at 2:36 p.m. local time, according to aviation website FlightRadar24. It flew several short hops in the days leading up to the crash, including nine flights on Dec. 31 and eight on Jan. 4. All six flights on Jan. 7 were delayed by at least an hour.

The black boxes will provide more information on what caused the plane to plunge more than 10,000 feet in a matter of seconds. Investigators have detected the pingers that are used to locate the flight recorders, which capture sound in the cockpit and monitor flight data.

Both pilots in command of Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 were experienced and the airline has a solid safety record, with no fatal accidents since it was founded in 2003. The plane itself was old -- over 26 years -- but also had a good safety record. The much newer Boeing 737 Max is a separate model just emerging from a 20-month global grounding after two fatal crashes, the first of which involved a Lion Air flight also plunging into the Java Sea, in October 2018.

Boeing is “working to gather more information,” spokeswoman Zoe Leong said, while Sriwijaya Air has said it will work with relevant authorities in investigation efforts.

Human remains collected from the crash site have been handed over for identification, along with 30 bags containing parts of the plane, search and rescue operation director Rasman MS said at a briefing Tuesday. One victim was identified as 29-year-old Okky Bisma. Seven children and three infants were among the passengers.

Flight 182 was delayed for 56 minutes in Jakarta, according to FlightRadar24, as heavy rain lashed the Indonesian capital. Soekarno-Hatta International Airport’s official weather report about 10 minutes before the crash said there was light rain with a cloud ceiling starting at 1,800 feet. Weather has been a factor in several crashes in Indonesia, which has one of the world’s worst aviation safety records after its market expanded at breakneck pace.

Preliminary data appear to show the pilots were possibly disoriented, at least partly because of the bad weather, aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman said. Teal Group’s Richard Aboulafia said the cause was unlikely to be an aircraft design flaw given the long service of the 737-500.

Sriwijaya Air started out as a carrier with just one Boeing 737-200, flying short routes from Jakarta. It now flies across the Indonesian archipelago as well as internationally to Timor-Leste and Penang in Malaysia. Flight 182 was headed to Pontianak on the island of Borneo.

Indonesia’s flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia briefly took over Sriwijaya Air’s operations and those of its unit NAM Air in 2018 as the airline restructured its debt. Garuda also conducted maintenance then, which is now carried out by engineers from Indonesia and overseas.

Indonesia, with a population of about 270 million people spread over thousands of islands, is the world’s fifth-biggest aviation market in terms of scheduled capacity, according to OAG Aviation Worldwide. The coronavirus pandemic has squeezed the country’s airlines, as it has with others around the world, and domestic seat capacity is still 32% below pre-covid levels, OAG said.