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- A Boeing plane in Indonesia is believed to have crashed into the Java Sea on Saturday.
- The 26-year plan was a Boeing 737-500 and part of the “Classic” 737 series that ended production in 1999.
- While the cause of the accident is still under investigation, Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst at Teal Group, does not believe it was the result of a design flaw.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
On Saturday, a Boeing plane carrying 62 passengers disappeared minutes after takeoff and authorities say it is supposed to have crashed into the Java Sea.
Indonesian Sriwijaya Air flight # SJ182 took off from Jakarta, Indonesia, and was carrying 50 passengers and 12 crew members.
According to the flight tracking website FlightRadar24, the plane lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than a minute. A local fisherman told the BBC that he witnessed the accident and said that “the plane fell like lightning into the sea and exploded in the water.” Some debris from the plane has been found in the water, according to Indonesian media reports.
The aircraft was a 26-year-old Boeing 737-500, part of the 737 “Classic” series that ended production in 1999. The cause of the accident is unknown.
Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst at Teal Group, does not believe the accident was the result of a model design flaw.
“This is not even the pre-Max model, it has been in service for 30 years so this is unlikely to be a design flaw,” he told Bloomberg. “Thousands of these planes have been built and production ended more than 20 years ago, so something would have been discovered by now.”
In an email to Insider, Aboulafia said that while 26 years of service exceeds the typical retirement age for many aircraft, it is not unusual for such an old aircraft to be flying.
“And it would be totally safe to assume that the correct maintenance procedures are in place and enforced by local regulators,” he wrote.
The alleged accident comes amid a difficult few years for Boeing.
In October 2018 and March 2019, two Boeing 737 Max model aircraft crashed, killing a total of 364 people. The plane was ordered to land around the world as regulators and Boeing worked to correct what appeared to be a fundamental design flaw in the model. In late 2020, after intensive investigations, the Federal Aviation Administration cleared the 737 Max to fly again.
This week, Boeing agreed to pay a $ 2.5 billion criminal fine to settle charges of fraud conspiracy related to its 737 Max scandal.
Boeing CEO David Calhoun said the resolution was the right choice for the company. “This resolution is a serious reminder to all of us of how critical our obligation of transparency to regulators is and the consequences our company may face if any of us fail to meet those expectations.”
