Adam Air Flight 574

Approximate flight path

Adam Air Flight 574 (KI 574 ) was a scheduled passenger flight from Surabaya ( SUB) to Manado (MDC ) in Indonesia who disappeared near Polewali in Sulawesi on 1 January 2007. Early reports that the wreckage of the aircraft was found, turned out to be rumor. In the course of January wreckage were recovered from the water and more located on the seabed. On January 21, the two flight recorders were located at a depth of about 2000 m and also recovered six months later.

Aircraft

The plane, a Boeing 737-400 with registration number PK- KKW, made its maiden flight on November 1, 1989, was operated by eight airlines. The aircraft had completed 45,371 flight hours and was last reviewed on 25 December 2005 by the Indonesian Ministry of Transport. The next review would have been the end of January due in 2007. According to the airport in Surabaya there were no technical problems before the departure of the aircraft.

History of the flight

On 1 January 2007 at 12:55 local time clock ( clock 5:55 UTC), the plane took off with 96 passengers and six crew members aboard the International Juanda Airport in Surabaya. The two-hour flight was at 16:00 local time (8.00 UTC clock, between Sulawesi and Java, there is a time difference of one hour) on the Sam Ratulangi airport in Manado, Sulawesi, end. The flight proceeded normally until the machine in Makassar, South Sulawesi, disappeared from the radar screens of air traffic control. The date of last contact was at 14:53 local time ( 6:53 UTC clock ). The last known position was recorded by a satellite at Polewali ( localization) -3.2166666666667119.15472222222. The altitude of the aircraft was, according to radar recording about 35,000 feet (about 10,700 meters).

The weather in the region was stormy. The Indonesian Agency for Meteorology and Geophysics found that the cloud cover reached up to a height of 30,000 feet (about 9,150 meters); the average wind speed in this area was 30 knots (56 kilometers per hour). Although the competent aviation authority in Indonesia warned the pilot of the weather conditions, the plane took off on schedule. About the Strait of Makassar itself saw the pilot with winds of up to 130 kilometers per hour confronted and changed the course eastward.

Contrary to initial reports, the machine has not sent any emergency signals from Enforced Disappearance.

The passenger list included with the exception of a three-person U.S. family exclusively Indonesians.

Search and rescue efforts

False reports of the discovery of the wreck

Originally, it was reported that the plane had been located in the mountainous region of the south of the island of Sulawesi. This alert Hundreds of rescue workers have been mobilized. The commander of the air base Hasanuddin confirmed this report over a local radio station. Consequently, the wreck was found about 20 kilometers from the mountain town of Polewali away. This report also stated that 12 inmates had survived the crash.

The rescue workers were brought to the specified location, but found no traces of a plane wreck. On 2 January 2007, the Indonesian Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa announced that the plane had not yet been found and the contrary reports had based on rumors that villagers had passed on to the authorities.

Speculations and assumptions

It has been speculated that the machine was already exploded in the air. This assumption was widespread, after it was revealed that two separate ELT signals were received. An airliner has two Notfunkbaken. A portable unit is mounted in the cockpit and starts on the emergency frequency 121.5 megahertz to send as soon as it comes into contact with water. The second, which is mounted at the rear and is activated by a crash, sends to 406 megahertz. These transmitted signals have pointed to two different crash sites. The 121.5 - megahertz frequency is very susceptible to interference; Nevertheless, the assumption that the plane had already broken apart in the air, supported by the later discovery of wreckage scattered over a relatively large area. However, the wreckage could have been driven apart on their two kilometers way from the water surface to the ocean floor by the influence of ocean current, even if the aircraft should be only shattered on impact with the water. This had been the case with TWA 800.

Further efforts

The search for the missing machine was continued in other possible crash locations, said search teams were used to land on water and in the air. The strength of the search teams has been temporarily increased to 3,500 men.

The units should seek the missing aircraft from the air, were a military surveillance aircraft of type Boeing 737-200 and two equipped with infrared detectors machines Fokker 50 of Air Force of Singapore, as well as dozens of helicopters. Later involved with sonar -equipped military aircraft and ships to the search, which were sent to the Makassar Strait. The search focused in the face of the heavy rain and strong winds to the area between the coastal town of Majene and the mountainous region of Toraja. The authorities said that the ELT signal transmitter of the aircraft were probably damaged on impact or were weakened by interference, which makes the search more difficult. The Director of the National Search and Rescue Agency believed that the machine had been lost to the sea.

The search operation was officially terminated on 10 February 2007 and thus the plane crash and the death of all on board passengers and crew finally adopted. This is necessary so that the survivors can prove their claims to the insurance companies.

Discovery of wreckage

On 8 January 2007, a large metal objects have been located by sonar in three places, one of which was suspected that there are parts of the wreck. Admiral Gatot Subyanto of the Indonesian Navy announced that the three places near the city Mamuju were on the west coast of Sulawesi, between three and six kilometers apart. With the sonar equipment used but did not succeed in more accurate determination of metal objects. A ship of the U.S. Navy, the USNS Mary Sears arrived in the area on January 9, 2007. It is equipped with more powerful devices. Through a Canadian specialty aircraft aerial photos of the region were made to help in the systematic search. On January 24, the British Special Craft MN Endeavor arrived in the area to assist in the search. This ship is normally used by Ölbohrfirmen for mapping the ocean floor.

On January 10, a portion of the tail of the aircraft and January 13, was found part of a wing. In addition, a headrest, an identity card, lifejackets, seats, a dining tray, part of a tire and a number of other parts made of aluminum and fiberglass were fished out of the water. ( Until January 29, 2007 a ​​total of 206 fragments were recovered from the sea, of which at least 194 definitely came from the missing 737. )

Discovery of the flight recorder

On 21 January 2007, the American ship USNS Mary Sears located the two flight recorders. The Flight Data Recorder was 3 ° 41 ' 02 " S, 118 ° 08' 53 " O at about 2000 meters depth; the cockpit voice recorder was located in a water depth of 1900 meters at 3 ° 40 ' 22 " S, 118 ° 9' 16" E. The two positions are about 1400 feet apart. The ship felt the surroundings of three nautical miles of the localities with a sonar device from; a high-resolution map was created. Here, a large number of debris has been located on the seabed. It is believed that this is fragments of the missing machine. The recovery of the two flight recorders was required to determine the cause of the crash can. However, the Indonesian authorities initially informed that the required to salvage from this water depth technology was not available in Asia. The battery life with whom send the flight recorders positioning signals was limited to about 30 days.

Recovery of flight recorders

As of 26 January, there came between Adam Air and the Indonesian government to disagreements about the recovery of the black box. Due to the great depth of water, the recovery required the use of a remotely operated underwater vehicle. For the cost - including the transportation of such a device in the search field - blamed the Indonesian government Adam Air. Vice President Jusuf Kalla made ​​the recovery at all in question; Aviation experts, however, indicated that the investigation of the accident is not only national, but also in world aviation is important for safety. The chances of success for a salvage declined significantly in the meantime, since the end of the battery life of 30 days silent locating signals. In addition, there was concern to identify the devices on the located positions by a remote- controlled submersible device, since the expected visibility on the seabed were inadequate and other wreckage would potentially obstruct the view.

On 31 January 2007, the U.S. Navy's USS Mary Sears took advantage to take over other tasks from the search. In early March it was reported that Adam Air was in negotiations with at least one salvage company.

Nearly nine months after the crash both flight recorders were recovered from nearly 2000 meters deep and brought for evaluation in the United States on August 27, 2007.

Investigations

The Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered an extensive investigation to determine the cause of the crash. The study will also address the operating capability of the machine. A team of representatives of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA), Boeing and General Electric assisted the Indonesian authorities in the investigation.

On 25 March 2008, the final report of the Indonesian Commission of Inquiry was announced. This has at least partially assigned on the basis of evaluations of the flight recorder to blame for the crash the pilot.

However, 154 partially recurring defects reports had been listed on the navigation system of the crashed plane in the months before the accident.

At least during the last thirteen minutes before the impact with the sea, the pilots were distracted by a problem with the navigation system, so that they would not have noticed that the autopilot had since been deactivated itself. The machine was then passed into a descent, the right rear spiral resulted due to a tilt of the airplane with nose directed upward from the original flight altitude of 35,000 feet to the water surface. This process took about two minutes. In this case, the aircraft has become faster and faster. It had reached a speed of Mach 0.926 just before impact.

The pilots would have according to the report made ​​several wrong decisions in the seconds after the autopilot disconnect. Thus, they had warning lights are not observed, because they were obviously not trained on the independent autopilot disconnect.