An Adam Air Preliminary Report is Foreshadowed

Indonesia's expressed intention to issue a preliminary report on the disappearance of Adam Air's 737-400 on New Years Day is a little non-plussing. Enough is known about the wreckage's location to issue a "factual" report. However a preliminary report would usually assume that there has been some determination as to cause. The flight data and cockpit voice recorders are at a depth of 2000m and their pinging transponders are battery dead. That means that any attempt to recover them would also be dependent upon a decision to recover the wreckage of the aircraft itself. Assumptions are being made that most of the passengers would still be strapped into the intact fuselage, due to no bodies having been located. This would give some impetus to any Government decision to raise the wreckage and recover the recorders.

The 737-400 crashed into the sea on 1 January while en route from Surabaya to Manado in North Sulawesi. A US Navy oceanographic survey ship was able to pinpoint the recorders’ location by detecting their transmitter beacons just prior to their expiration. The President of Adam Air, Adam Suherman says he has been negotiating with two companies and will be choosing one to carry out the salvage mission. Favored contractor would be Phoenix International, a US company based in Washington, DC. Phoenix was the sub-contractor to the US Navy vessel that helped with the initial search. The lead investigator from Indonesia's national transportation safety committee KNKT, a Mr Frans Wenas, has explained that KNKT cannot force Adam Air to recover the wreckage and its victims. However the moral onus is now upon the airline to do so. He also said: "We already have some other facts and findings that have given us some clues. There will be an analysis and a probable cause given". Any salvage operation would fall under the KNKT's authority.

Meanwhile five of the six Adam Air 737-400's that were grounded following the destructive hard landing of a 7th (reg: PK-KKV) on 21 Feb at Surabaya are now flying again.