Indonesia grounds Adam Air; may be permanently shut down in three months

Tuesday, March 18, 2008
This B737-400 in standard Adam Air livery is roughly comparable to the aircraft involved in all the accidents and incidents mentioned in this story.
This B737-400 in standard Adam Air livery is roughly comparable to the aircraft involved in all the accidents and incidents mentioned in this story.

Indonesia has suspended the operating license of PT Adam Skyconnection Airlines, who trade as Adam Air, over safety concerns. The airline has recently suffered safety problems and financial difficulty.

Formed in 2003, Adam Air hit financial crisis on Monday when two major shareholders, investment companies who control 50% of the airline, anounced they were pulling out and selling all shares back to the original owners, who still control the other half. The reasons given were a lack of improvement in safety and alleged financial mismanagement.

The shares were bought after two major accidents hit the budget carrier last year. On New Year's day Adam Air Flight 574 disapeared and was found to have crashed into the ocean near Sulawesi, leaving 102 missing and presumed dead. Shortly afterwards, another company aircraft snapped in half during landing, but fatalities were prevented because the compromised airframe held together. Both were Boeing 737 (B737) aircraft. At the airline's height, it operated 22 of these, serving domestic routes accross the Indonesian archipelago and daily international flights to Malaysia and Singapore.

Adam Air also had a serious incident in early 2006, when all navigational systems on a B737 failed, causing the plane to inadvertantly enter an accident blackspot. The aircraft was lost for several hours before performing an emergency landing hundreds of miles from its intended destination.

On March 10, another Adam Air B737 overshot the runway during landing at Batam island's airport. Since then, Adam Air has been issued two deadlines in rapid succession by the authorities - one to solve safety issues, and one to prove its financial viability. They have cut routes from 52 to 12, and defaulted on all payments on their aircraft to the leasing companies, who have seized back 12 of them.

Gustiono Kustianto, director of one of the two leasing companies, said the carrier's "life expectancy is less than a month," and that it owes US$14 million to leasing companies compared to $4.8 million of free capital.

Aviation director general Budhi Mulyawan Suyitno said that Adam Air had been grounded due to inadequate Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) standards and poor pilot training. He said that investigations into last week's crash, which injured five people and severely damaged the aircraft, had revealed "the pilot had no idea what to do in an emergency situation." The airline will spend three months grounded, after which it will be shut down entirely if it does not show it has improved.

"The Transport Ministry has decided to revoke Adam Air's operational specification, effective 12am Wednesday (4am AEDT), said Suyitno. "With this, Adam Air is banned from operating its aircraft. All of its planes must be automatically grounded." He commented that a quaterly evaluation had uncovered "violations that could put passengers' safety at risk".

The news coincides with a two-day ultimatum from Adam Air's insurance provider. Failure to pay the insurance premiums would also have resulted in grounding.

Founder Adam Suherman - whose family owns half the airline alongside Sandra Ang - commented today that the situation with the shareholders had demoralised pilots. "That in turn would affect their performance. It is very dangerous." He also said that he was not surprised Adam Air had been grounded. Yesterday, he said that there were no plans to file for bankruptcy.

His immediate reaction to the news from the insurance - which preceded the grounding by several hours - was that his airline likely could not insure the entire fleet, saying "There have been warnings from the insurance companies... Because every aircraft that is in operation must be insured, the operational activities will be temporarily suspended until there is a further decision from shareholders."

Adam Air's 2007 accidents, coupled with Garuda Indonesia Flight 200, sparked an industry review that determined none of the nation's air carriers were safe. The United States subsequently warned against using Indonesian airlines, and they were all added to the list of air carriers banned in the EU.

AdamAir Temporarily stops operations

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Domestic airline company AdamAir announced on Monday it may have to stop its flight operations as of March 21, 2008 because it had failed to pay the insurance premium for its aircraft which due on March 20, 2008.

"We will still fly on March 20 but beginning 00:00 hours on March 21, 2008 we will stop our flight operations," President Director of AdamAir, Adam Suherman said here on Monday.

Based on international aviation law, all aircraft must be insured before they are operated.

He said that the insurance company has sent an insurance cancellation note to AdamAir which fell due on March 20, 2008.

"The flight operations will temporarily be stopped pending the decision of the shareholders on the insurance premium payment," he said.

Adam said that of the 22 airplanes it was operating 12 had been been withdrawn because the company was not able to pay their insurance premium.

The company also failed to pay the premium of the remaining 10 airplanes which were still operated.(*)

Adam Air Skids in Batam

TEMPO Interactive, Batam: Adam Air flight number KI-292 with the route of Jakarta-Batam skidded on the runway of Hang Nadim airport in Batam, Kepulauan Riau, yesterday. The B-737-400 aircraft with 171 passengers slid 70 meters toward one side of runway. Three people were injured with one remaining unconscious. The victims were taken to the hospital of Otorita Batam.

Danke Drajat, director of Adam Air communication department, said there were no severely injured passengers in this incident. “Only several are shocked”, he said. He confirmed all passengers have been evacuated. Adam Air, he said, has submitted this incident to the National Flights Safety Commission.

Razali Akbar, Head of Hang Nadim Airport, said that before the skid, the aircraft had touched the runway but it suddenly flew back. The landing then had to be done again. On the second landing , the aircraft looked unstable. After it landed, the aircraft turned to the right and went off the runway. “It is not clear why it suddenly skidded”, Rajazali said.

Razali said there were no sparks when the aircraft skidded. After it stopped, the front wheel was left dangling while the back wheel was down on the ground. Both left and right wings were broken. “It was raining when the aircraft landed”, he said.

Razali also confirmed that the runway condition was proper for take-off and landing because the viewing distance was 3,000 meters more out of a total of 4,025 meters . The runway and all navigation devices were functioning well. “This condition is adequate for the landing of a B737-400”, he said.

In response to this incident, the provincial police of Kepulauan Riau, held Sugiarto, pilot of Adam Air, while waiting for the KNKT team from Jakarta. Police also secured the plane to prevent any unexpected accident.

For two hours, the airport of Hang Nadim was closed for taking-off and landing. Hence, there were delays for the flight to Natuna (Merpati Airlines) and Jakarta (Air Asia and Lion Air).

The landing of several airlines was changed to another airport. Batavia airline from Jakarta, landed in Pekanbaru. Some of them-- Sriwijaya Air, Lion Air, and Mandala Air-- must return to Jakarta.

Tatang Kurniadi, Head of KNKT, said this incident is being handled by the Directorate of Airworthiness - - DSKU). KNKT only handles the accident incident. However, the minister of transportation ordered KNKT to analyse the incident. “Any incident, even the smallest one, should be of concern,” Tatang said.

Black Box from Adam Air Crash in Celebes Straits Revailed the "Human Error"

JAKARTA (AFP) - The pilots of an Indonesian jet caused a 2007 crash which killed all 102 people aboard by accidentally disconnecting the plane's autopilot, investigators said Tuesday.

The two pilots for budget airline Adam Air were trying to fix a problem with the plane's navigation instruments when they disconnected the device and lost control of the Boeing 737-400, government investigators found.

The jet was carrying 96 passengers and six crew when it plunged into the sea off Sulawesi island on January 1, 2007.

"Without the autopilot, the plane went out of control, listing to the right and pitching down," investigator Santoso Sayogo told a press conference.

Data recovered from the "black box" flight recorder revealed the co-pilot shouted "pull up!" six times before the plane went down.

Other final comments from the pilots were "Do you see it's messed up?" and "it's starting to fly like a bamboo ship!", according to data recovered from the flight recorder.

It also revealed the pilots were concerned they were going off course, but did not send a distress call.

Transport Minister Jusman Syafei Djamal said Adam Air had registered 154 defects in the Boeing 737-400's navigation system in the three months before the crash, showing the planes were poorly maintained.

"The accident happened because of a combination of several factors, including the failure of both pilots to intensively monitor flight instruments, especially in the last two minutes of the flight," Indonesia's transport safety chief Tatang Kurniadi said.

Another investigator said the plane was travelling at 10 times the normal landing speed when it hit the water and would have broken up on impact. No bodies were ever recovered.

Indonesia imposed a three-month flying ban on Adam Air this month after uncovering "violations that could put passengers' safety at risk."

The move followed a series of incidents that raised doubts over the airline's safety record, most recently when an Adam Air Boeing 737-400 with 175 people on board skidded off the runway in foul weather this month.

Last year all Boeing 737-300 aircraft operated by the airline were grounded temporarily after the fuselage of one plane cracked on landing, and in 2006 a jet went missing for several hours, eventually landing many miles from its intended destination.

The three-month ban is part of a push by Indonesia's government to improve the country's air safety record following a series of fatal accidents blamed on lax enforcement of safety regulations, poor maintenance and a lack of investment in transport infrastructure.

Last March, 21 people were killed when a jet from national carrier Garuda skidded off a runway.

Shortly after that, the European Union banned all Indonesian airlines from its airspace over security concerns and the United States advised its citizens not to use them.

Djamal said the government had stepped up its monitoring of the country's airlines and was now conducting quarterly inspections as part of efforts to overturn the EU ban.

"We will provide feedback to the airlines to enable them to improve their safety procedures," he said.

"We will also impose an immediate operating ban if there is any indication that an airliner may be putting passengers' lives at risk."

Black Box from Adam Air Crash at the Celebes Straits Revailed the "Human Error"

By Dita Alangkara (AP)
Published: 2008-03-25 05:15:02
Location: JAKARTA, Indonesia

An Indonesian pilot shouted "Pull up! Pull up!" seconds before his jetliner plunged into the sea last year, killing all 102 people on board, according to an investigation Tuesday that blamed his errors and a faulty navigation system for the disaster.

"This is really bad. It is starting to fly like a bamboo ship," said one of the two pilots before the Boeing 737 crashed, according to comments captured by the cockpit voice recorder. "This is crazy!"

Last week, the government revoked low-cost carrier Adam Air's operating license because of its poor safety record.

The National Transportation Safety Committee said 154 recurring defects in the plane's navigation system were reported in the months leading up to New Year's Day crash, and that the carrier failed to properly address those reports or train pilots to deal with them.

The plane was flying from the main island of Java to an airport in the east of Indonesia when it spiraled from the sky at a height of 33,000 feet. It took around two minutes to hit the sea, the report said.

Several days passed before fisherman and navy boats discovered wreckage from the plane floating on the ocean. Both flight data recorders were eventually recovered from the sea bed, but the plane's mostly intact fuselage remains there.

Initially, the pilots reported a problem with the navigation system, but they sounded unconcerned, even joking at times 20 minutes before it went down. In the course of trying to fix the problem, the jetliner's autopilot disengaged, causing the plane to bank to the right.

The pilots were apparently unaware they were now flying the plane and ignored "a number of initial alerts, warnings and changes to displays" indicating the jetliner's increasingly critical situation, the report said.

"The pilots did not detect and appropriately arrest the descent soon enough to prevent loss of control," it said, adding that they apparently had no training on what to do if the Inertial Reference System failed, nor if the autopilot unexpectedly disengaged.

They made several wrong decisions in the seconds after the autopilot was turned off, the report said.

The accident was one of a spate in Indonesia in recent years, including one involving the national carrier Garuda that killed 21, leading the EU to ban all Indonesian airlines and the United States to warn that they did not meet international standards.

Adam Air was one of dozens of new airlines to emerge in Indonesia after it deregulated its aviation industry in the 1990s. But trained aviation professionals, regulatory oversight and decent ground infrastructure are all lacking in the country, experts say.

The New Year's Day crash was not the first incident involving faulty navigation systems on Adam Air jets.

In February 2006, another of its Boeing 737s went missing for hours following a navigation and communications breakdown and eventually made an emergency landing hundreds of miles from its destination in eastern Indonesia.