Page 69 - World Airnews Magazine February Edition 2021

NEWS

INDONESIA CRASH: WHAT

TO KNOW ABOUT THE

BOEING PLANE

By Austin Ramzy. Photographs by Associated Press

in the 1980s, and not the troubled 737 Max Before they are permitted to fly again,

airliner, which was grounded after deadly each 737 Max aircraft must have its wiring

he 737-500 that crashed last month crashes in 2018 and 2019. and software modified.

Tnear Jakarta was a 26-year-old
workhorse without the new technology HOW IS THE 737-500 DIFFERENT WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THE
that plagued the 737 Max. FROM THE 737 MAX? BOEING 737-500?
The crash of a plane in Indonesia carrying The plane involved in the crash on Saturday The 737-500 was introduced with the

more than 60 people comes at a difficult is an earlier model of the 737, and it had purchase of 20 planes in 1987 by Southwest

time for the aviation giant Boeing, which been in operation for 26 years. It was Airlines. The airline used the model, with a

has seen its reputation battered by years of previously flown by Continental Airlines capacity of 122, to more efficiently handle

investigations over deadly crashes. and United Airlines before it was delivered longer routes with a smaller number

The plane that crashed last month near to Sriwijaya Air in 2012, according to the of passengers, Southwest’s corporate

Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, was a Airfleets online database. historian, Richard West, wrote in 2016.
workhorse model with a good safety record The 737-500 does not share the same That need dropped as its long-haul travel
whereas the plane at the centre of the Boe- anti stall system as the 737 Max, which business increased and Southwest’s last

ing crisis was the 737 Max, a later version was triggered in the 2018 crash of another 737-500 flew in September 2016.

with faulty anti stall software that led to Indonesian flight, Lion Air Flight 610, killing Historically, the 737-500 has been a safe

two deadly crashes. all 189 people aboard. The same system plane to fly.

was blamed in the crash of a 737 Max in The series it belongs to, which includes
WHAT CAUSED THE BOEING PLANE Ethiopia in March 2019, which killed 157. the 737-300 and 737-400, has had 19 fatal
CRASH IN INDONESIA? Those crashes forced the grounding of accidents over more than three decades in

It is unclear what caused the crash. Sriwijaya the Max fleet worldwide and a crisis for operation, or about one fatal accident for

Air Flight 182, which was traveling to the Boeing. The company fired its chief execu- every four million departures, according to

city of Pontianak on the island of Borneo, tive and said last year that the Max ground- a 2019 Boeing report.

took off amid a heavy monsoon season rain, ing would cost it more than $18 billion, a Four previous fatal accidents have been
following a bad weather delay. It plunged sharp blow even before the coronavirus recorded in the 737-500, including crashes
more than 10,000 feet in less than a minute, pandemic pummelled the industry. in South Korea in 1993, Tunisia in 2002 and
according to the tracking site Flightradar24. Last week, the company said it had in Russia in 2008 and 2013, according to

Indonesia, an archipelago nation of agreed to pay $2.5 billion, including $500 the Aviation Safety Network.

thousands of islands, is heavily dependent million for a victims fund, to resolve a WHICH AIRLINES FLY IT?
on air travel. Though the country has a criminal conspiracy charge to defraud the

long history of aviation accidents, Sriwijaya Federal Aviation Administration over evalu- Boeing manufactured 389 of the 737-500

Air had not had a single fatal crash since it ation of the 737 Max. before the model was discontinued. As
began operations in 2003. The troubled 737 Max resumed flying many as 100 remain in use by smaller

The plane involved in the Sriwijaya Air last month, with American Airlines Flight airlines around the world in countries

crash, which lost contact shortly after 718 making the first commercial flight of including Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria, Russia

take-off from Jakarta on Saturday, was a the plane after the FAA. lifted its grounding and Ukraine, according to the tracking

Boeing 737-500, a proven model developed order in November. website Planespotters.net. Q
World Airnews | February 2021
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