Airline News
Rules set to change in Indonesian aviation
January 27th 2015
At a parliamentary hearing last week, Indonesian transport minister, Ignasius Jonan, proposed significant changes to the country’s aviation safety standards following the loss of Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501 in the Java Sea on December 28. Read More »
Ignasius said regular health checks for flight crew and air traffic controllers have been implemented since the crash. Applications for route permits and air transport licences would be moved online to expedite the process and create more transparency after it transpired that the ill-fated AirAsia A320 jet did not have the necessary permits to fly the Surabaya – Singapore route on the day of the crash.
The Indonesian official recommended raising the salaries of maintenance and safety inspection officials. Analysts welcomed the proposals, but said more needed to be done to ensure sustained air safety in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and most populous nation, including better training of engineers, cockpit crew and air traffic controllers and fast forwarding infrastructure development.
Meanwhile, investigators are expected to submit the preliminary report into flight QZ8501 to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) early next week. Indonesian authorities have already announced that the findings will not be made public. At press time, it had been established that the stricken jet made an “unbelievably steep” climb before impact, possibly causing a stall from which the pilots were unable to recover. Ice and terrorism have been ruled out as causes.
Following numerous revelations on safety violations in Indonesia since the AirAsia crash, Australian regulators have decided to indefinitely delay permits for AirAsia’s Indonesian long-haul budget arm, Indonesia AirAsia X, to operate from the archipelago to Australia.
