Indonesia may expand inspection of Boeing jets
Accident prompts scrutiny of 737-300s
Indonesia may conduct safety checks on all Boeing Co. 737-300s operated by domestic airlines after an accident this week involving the same type of aircraft, its Transport Ministry said Friday.
Indonesia may expand the inspection now under way on seven Adam Air 737-300s operated by PT Adam Skyconnection Airlines, Bambang Ervan, a spokesman at the Transport Ministry, said in a telephone interview in Jakarta, confirming a report Friday by Bisnis Indonesia.
The move could disrupt airline operations in the Southeast Asian nation, where domestic passenger volume growth has averaged more than 25 percent since 1999. Local airlines operate 40 of the Boeing 737-300 planes, Bisnis Indonesia said in its report.
Indonesia's government, which has allowed 70 companies to operate airlines, also plans to rate carriers based on their safety record and will shut those that rank the lowest, Transport Minister Hatta Rajasa said.
Carriers with the best safety record will be ranked one; a rating of two will mean the airline has to fix problems, while those rated three will be forced to close, Rajasa said.
Authorities are examining Adam Air's 737-300 fleet after one of the planes broke its fuselage when it made a hard landing in rainy weather at the Surabaya airport in East Java on Feb. 21. The aircraft was bent and its tail almost touched the runway. It should have withstood the hard landing, Ervan said.
If Adam Air's other six planes show similar problems, the ministry will expand its inspection, he said. Planes under scrutiny will have to be suspended, he said.
Boeing is providing technical support as required to help Adam Air ensure the airworthiness of its fleet, Mark Hooper, a Hong Kong-based spokesman at Boeing, said in an e-mailed statement Friday.
"Boeing stands ready to provide technical assistance to Indonesian authorities as they investigate the cause of this accident," Hooper said.
Ervan couldn't say how long it will take to inspect Adam Air's fleet. "We're looking for irregularities in the production, things that could lead to an accident," he said.
Garuda Indonesia, the nation's largest carrier, has 17 Boeing 737-300s in its fleet of 52 planes, according to its Web site. A Garuda spokesman couldn't be reached for comment.
Wednesday's accident marks the second for Adam Air in less then two months. An Adam Air plane disappeared off the coast of Sulawesi Jan. 1 with 102 people on board.
Indonesian officials have said that the Boeing 737-400 plane probably crashed into the ocean and sank.
Indonesia has shut down four airlines and grounded five others with the potential of similar licence revocations for failing to meet safety standards.

The largest company to lose its licence is Jatayu Gelang Sejahtera. The other companies are all small airlines operating only aircraft with a passenger capacity of fewer than thirty, and are Aviasi Upataraksa, Alfa Trans Dirgantara and Prodexim. The companies that were grounded pending either improvements or licence revokation are Germania Trisila Air, Atlas Delta Setia, Survey Udara Penas, Kura-kura Aviation and SMAC, all of which also operate only aircraft with under-30 passenger capacities. They have three months to improve, or their licences will be revoked.

Jatayu had already ceased operations in August, but had intended to restart with a 150-seat Boeing 737. The licence was revoked because the state requires at least two aircraft to be commercially operated and because of the fact that it "was lacking in pilots and human resources". Also, the age of the jetliner meant that it would require a test called a 'C-Check' before it could begin commercial services, at a cost of $120,000.

The action comes as the result of a number of air crashes, namely the Adam Air Flight 574 disaster in which 102 people were killed, and the Adam Air Flight 172 accident, in which a plane snapped in half during a hard landing, but managed to hold together, thus preventing any serious injuries. As a result, all 54 of Indonesia's airlines were given a safety rating, with a level-1 rating meaning no action was needed, a level-2 rating meaning the airline needed to make some improvements, and a level-3 rating requiring that the airline be shut down unless improvements were made within three months. Most airlines received a level-2 rating, while none received the top rating. Adam Air was among the airlines to receive the level-3 rating, but was upgraded to tier 2 at the same time as the groundings.

Meanwhile, state-owned Garuda Indonesia is now the only airline to have a type-1 rating, despite the fatal crash of Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 in March. According to the Indonesian Transport Ministry's Director General for Aviation Budi Mulyawan Suyitno, Garuda now satisfied 84 percent of civil aviation standards.

The ratings have been based on such criteria as surveillance, ramp checks, personnel, department safety, number of accidents and number of serious incidents, according to the BBC. Meanwhile, ''Flight Global'' is reporting that, according to Directorate General of Air Communications (DGAC) director of air certification office, Yurlis Hasibuan “20 criteria including whether the airline has developed better safety and human resources” are checked.