62 Lives Lost as 2021 Begins

A Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 flight with 62 boarding dissipated from radar navigation four minutes after its departure from Jakarta to Indonesia’s Borneo Island, Pontianak, on January 9, 2021. Jakarta air traffic controllers lost connection with the aircraft at 2:40 p.m. local time near the Thousand Islands amid heavy rainstorms.

Flightradar24, an air traffic monitor has recently proffered reports regarding the tragic occurrence. The air traffic monitor reported that the aircraft descended into the ocean at 10,000 ft per minute, only 4 minutes after its departure from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Researchers believe the aircraft was intact during its sharp proximity with the ocean, in view of the fact that recently retrieved remnants of the aircraft were all located in one specifically concentrated area of the Thousand Islands Sea.

Approximate coordinates of the plane have been confirmed by the Indonesian military, and in accordance with the supposed locality of the crash, ships have been dispatched to its location to search for the debris of the calamity, including the black box recorders, constituents of the aircraft, and the remains of those that were on board.

Fishermen of the area have reported spotting metal plane pieces while at sea and some have even indicated witnessing the collision. Local fishermen Solihin described the crashing plane to have plummeted from the sky like a streak of lightning before detonating in the water. He even remarked that the crash was nearby, so close that a shard of what resembled plywood from the aircraft nearly collided with his ship.

Navy divers have been able to recover the flight data recorder or the “black box” from the flight. Preserving the remaining data of the black box will help to expedite the investigating process for the reason behind why the aircraft crashed just four minutes into the flight. Remains of a small number of the victims on board were laid in cadaver pouches across the shore. Officials have requested bereaved families to supply DNA or dental samples to hasten the identification of victims.

Suyeon J., an AISG freshman and Eun Suk P., a parent of AISG, lamented the deaths of the 62 victims that were on board the Indonesian aircraft. Suyeon mentioned that with the adversities of last year’s COVID-19 pandemic, she had wished to start 2021 with only auspicious and rosy events. “It didn’t take long for it to be completely wrecked by the heart-rending calamity of the Sriwijaya Air Boeing flight.”

Eun Suk compared the crash of the Indonesian aircraft to the Sinking of the Sewol Ferry that occurred in Korea on April 16, 2014. She later expressed her condolences to the bereaved families of the recent crash.

Surprisingly, this is not the first case of a Boeing 737-500 model ending in misfortune. According to the Aviation Safety Network, the 737-500 Boeing model has been responsible for four previous fatal incidents, including those in South Korea (1993), Tunisia (2002), and Russia (2008 and 2013).

In addition, Boeing has agreed to deploy $500 to compensate for the loss of victims on the Indonesian flight. Due to such tragic events, Boeing has been permitted to part take in the grounding of certain models, including the 737 Max Grounding that was put into place after the same model killed a total of 346 passengers and flight crew on two flights on separate occasions.