Sixteen days into the disappearance of the Adam Air Boeing 737-400 jetliner, until today the exact whereabouts of the plane has yet to be pinpointed. KI-574, on what was a routine direct flight, departed Surabaya for Manado with 96 passengers (among whom 3 American citizens) and 6 crew on board. At 15.07 West Indonesia Time, the plane inexplicably fell off the radar screen of the aircraft control tower at Makassar airport. Its last position before its mysterious disappearance was 85 nautical miles (157.42 km) northwest of Makassar, South Sulawesi. The pilot had sent no mayday signal, except to report that the flight was experiencing 80 mph crosswinds.
 
After days of untiring and intensive scouring by search and rescue teams over a vast area of sea and rugged landscapes, and covering ever wider areas, finally the first sign of a possible plane fuselage was reported caught on sonar by Indonesia’s Navy ship KRI Fatahillah. At the ocean floor in the deep Makassar Straits, the ship had detected three large pieces of metal objects off Mamuju in West Sulawesi, at a depth of between 1,000 to 1,500 meters below sea level. However, the ship’s sonar was not able to identify whether these chunks were indeed parts of the missing plane. Subsequent help in the form of more sophisticated equipment came from the US Navy Ship Mary Sears, but the depth of the sea was such, that even these more technologically advanced equipment on the US ship could not reach this depth. The United States then sent the more advanced “hydrophone” to arrive here on Tuesday, 16 January, while Singapore added more advanced “towed pinger locator” (TPL) to receive signals from the underwater locator beacon (ULB) attached to a plane’s data flight recorder or black box. 

Last week on Wednesday, 10 January, the first real breakthrough came when a fisherman named Bakri reported that a strange foreign metal object was caught in his fish trap on the shores of the village of Barru, South Sulawesi, some 300 meters away from the beach.  When police and officials rushed to the scene and transported this finding to Makassar, authorities confirmed that the piece of metal was indeed the tail horizontal stabilizer of the missing aircraft, which was confirmed by the number visible on the stabilizer that matched precisely the spare-part number in the Boeing catalogue.  

The following days, more than 100 pieces of metal and other aircraft debris drifted in and were found on the beaches between towns of Barru and Parepare along the western shore of South Sulawesi, located south of the towns of Majene and Mamuju. Head of the Makassar Airport and Chief of the Search Mission, Air Force Marshall Eddy Suyanto confirmed that these included life jackets, cushion’s rubber foam, the aircraft trim elevator, parts of its wings, and mangled food trays. However, not all pieces found were confirmed as having originated from the missing Adam Air plane. 

Nonetheless, the most important part of the aircraft, -  its fuselage where the passengers could be found, was still undetected.  By now, the search had been intensified to find the plane’s black box or data flight recorder in the sea,  that could explain what had actually happened to the ill-fated aircraft in the last 30 minutes of its flight. The battery of the black box is said to be able to last 30 days only, which allows searchers a window of two short weeks only to find it.

Was an air explosion the cause of the Adam Air plane disintegration?

The pieces of metal and other debris that were found on the beach elicited speculations from both experts and amateurs alike. Could an explosion have been the cause of the plane’s disaster?

However, chief of the Military Command at Pare-pare, Colonel Pranoto, rejected the theory that a bomb or a fire had caused the accident. His conclusion was based on the fact that none of the debris that was found here showed traces of fire. Besides, said Colonel Mustofa Adi Pranoto, debris from an explosion was usually recognizable by sharp or jagged points, which these did not have. For example, a seat passenger food tray that was found, was mangled but did not appear to have been in an explosion. The mangled pieces must have gone through some violent pressure, which is possible if the plane had disintegrated either upon impact on entering the water or indeed through extremely strong pressures of currents at the bottom of the sea. It is also most telling that the debris were found nearly 10 days after the accident, while no floating debris were detected on the days immediately after the accident.
This would indicate that the pieces had slowly surfaced from the bottom of the sea to finally beach on land.

If the plane had gone down into the deep trench at Mamuju where the large chunks of metal were detected by sonar, it could very well be that strong currents had driven the lighter pieces south to the beaches at Pare Pare and Barru.  Another indication that the accident had occurred in the waters of the Makassar Straits and that the plane had not exploded in the air, was that pieces would be scattered around a large radius over sea and land. But the fact is that until today, not one single piece of metal from the plane had been found on land, despite intensive search parties having combed nearby locations days earlier.   

In the latest developments, Indonesian Air Force planes reported having detected an oil spill in the middle of the sea. As the spill was said to be clean and not tainted by water, which is characteristic of jet fuel or avtur, it would appear that the fuel spill must have come from the missing Adam Air plane. Are searchers closer to finding the main fuselage of the doomed plane? The fact that no trace of any passenger had been found until today would indicate that the plane fuselage’s was lying at the bottom of the sea.

Setyo Rahardjo, Chief of the National Transportation Safety Board, told AP that the chances are small that the Boeing 737 had blown up because search and rescue teams had not found burnt wreckage or human remains since New Year's Day, when the Adam Air plane went missing.
"We have only found little pieces of aircraft which indicates the main body of the aircraft is at the bottom of the sea," Rahardjo told The Associated Press. "Until now no human bodies have been found."
The explosion option has been dropped from a list of three crash scenarios that still includes possibilities that the plane suffered a catastrophic structural failure and broke apart at 35,000 feet, or was damaged in severe weather. This was the first public speculation by aviation authorities, reported AP
Meanwhile, President Yudhoyono on his flight back from attending the ASEAN Summit in Cebu, in the Philippines, made special effort to stop-over in Manado to speak with and console relatives of the missing plane’s passengers. Here the President reiterated his earlier promise, that search efforts for the jetliner would continue until it was known what had happened to the passengers, and no time limit will be given to these efforts. 

LCC’s Safety Measures Scrutinized

With the disappearance of the Adam Air plane, public focus has returned to the issue of safety of Indonesian airlines, especially of the new budget airlines or LCC’s (low cost carriers). Last year, Adam Air made headlines when one of its Boeing 737’s went missing for hours following navigation and communications breakdown, eventually making an emergency landing in Tambolaka, a pioneer airport hundreds of miles from its final destination.

The airline had broken several civil aviation regulations that day, including flying the plane away from the scene before an inspection by aviation authorities. The pilot was fired, but government regulators would not say if the airline was fined, citing confidentiality regulations.
Now legislators and the public are wondering whether Indonesia’s cheap-fare airlines cared enough about their passengers’ safety? 
 
Despite assurances that passengers’ safety was their chief concern, rumours begun to circulate in the internet of the callous ways how Adam Air’s management cared little about their pilots, nor about airline safety.

In response to these complaints, the government decided to step up enforcements of safety regulations. Aircraft ramp checks are now undertaken daily. Each airline now must appoint more than one official responsible for inspectors’ ramp checks. The larger the number of aircrafts operated by an airline, the more this company must assign such officials.

The Department of Transportation further reminded pilots that they should not change flight paths en route without prior consultation with, and the agreement from, the corresponding traffic control tower. The Adam Air missing plane is reported to have changed flight paths twice to avoid bad weather, as heard in the tower flight recording.

Strictly Enforce International Standards on Air Safety, government urged 

Subsequently, PAUKI, the non-government organization caring for airline safety, called on Parliament and the government to enforce international standards on airline safety.

In a hearing with Parliament, the Indonesia National Air Carriers Association (INACA) supported Parliament’s proposal that Indonesia’s airlines be audited by independent auditors following international standards, reported Bisnis Indonesia, while audits should be made periodically.  This audit should be all-encompassing, and should not only affect operators, but also regulators, airport  facilities, air traffic control management, airport administrations, the Meteorological and Geophysics Board as well as the National Committee for Transportation Safety, KNKT.  

ICAO had earlier identified a number of weaknesses in Indonesia’s air transport management, said INACA, that include organization, infrastructure and human resources. For instance, said Samudra Sukardi, Chairman of INACA, the number of inspectors at the Directorate General of Air Communication is far from adequate compared to the number of aircrafts and aircraft movements. There are only 60 inspectors to 600 aircraft units. Moreover, airport administrators are still too concentrated on administrative matters rather than ensuring flight safety. Furthermore, the accuracy of weather forecasts issued by BMG is still often questioned, that could endanger flight safety.

Secretary General of INACA, Tengku Burhanuddin, meanwhile added that conditions at a number of Indonesia’s airports must also be improved. Some airports are located too close to residential areas, while landing strips are most often not cleared from rubber deposits of tires.
 
Therefore, the government together with airline companies agreed that in case of mishaps or accidents, the government would not only call to task the pilot and direct handlers of the plane but also the airline’s top management, including its CEO, said Air Communications Director General, Tatang Ichsan.  

Special Presidential Team to Investigate all causes behind Transport Accidents

In the latest development, President Yudhoyono decided to form an Investigation team to formulate and report on the reasons behind the spate of accidents involving airlines and other transportation accidents in the past five years.

Presidential Decree No. 3 of 2007 dated 11 January tasks the team to thoroughly and comprehensively evaluate conditions related to the safety of transportation, including its regulations, law enforcements, standards and safety procedures.

Comprising seven members, the team is Chaired by former Air Force Chief of Staff, Air Force Marshall Cheppy Hakim, with Vice Chairman Budhi Muliawan Suyitno, and Secretary, Navy Admiral Yayun Riyanto.  Team members include airline technology professor Oetario Diran, former President Director of aircraft construction company, PT Dirgantara, legal expert on law of the air Priyatna Abdurrasyid, and Secretary General of INACA, Tengku Burhanuddin.
The team is to work together and cooperate with professional organizations involved in the investigation of transportation accidents.
(Sources: SCTV, RCTI, Kompas, Bisnis Indonesia)     (Tuti Sunario)