[imagesource: Tatan Syuflana/AP]
In 2019, two computer-related disasters in five months, including the now infamous Ethiopian Airline crash, launched Boeing into one of the biggest crises in its century-long history.
The flight only lasted six minutes, during which time the pilots battled to regain control of the plane.
The knock-on effects included the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max, which accounted for a third of Boeing’s operating profit.
Boeing is once again in the news following a devastating turn of events. A Boeing 737-500 crashed into the Java Sea with 62 people, including 10 children, onboard shortly after taking off from Indonesia’s capital, on Saturday.
Flight SJ182 was en route to Pontianak, a city on Indonesia’s section of Borneo Island, roughly 90 minutes away.
Per NPR, the reason for the crash may soon be apparent. Authorities said on Sunday that they know the location of the plane’s ‘black boxes’, but have yet to recover them.
Ongoing search operations have also uncovered body parts and clothing, but no survivors.
“We feel powerless. We can only wait and hope to get any information soon,” said Irfansyah Riyanto, who had five relatives on the flight.
According to the BBC, up to 2 600 rescue workers are currently involved in the search operation along with dozens of boats and helicopters, which are hauling body parts, wreckage, and passengers’ personal belongings from waters roughly 23 metres deep:
While the official cause of the crash has not been determined, data from FlightRadar24 indicates that the plane reached an altitude of nearly 11 000 feet before it lost more than 10 000 feet of altitude approximately four minutes after takeoff.
Sriwijaya Air flight #SJ182 lost more than 10.000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta.https://t.co/fNZqlIR2dz pic.twitter.com/MAVfbj73YN
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) January 9, 2021
Stephen Wright, a professor of aircraft systems at Finland’s Tampere University, says, via News24, that the rapid decline, which brought the aircraft crashing down in a matter of 20 seconds, “implies a catastrophic event or something deliberate”.
In the coming hours, search teams are expected to recover the black boxes which will hopefully contain more concrete clues as to the cause of the accident.
