The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will send a team of experts to help investigate the Sriwijaya Air 737 crash in Indonesia.
The NTSB will send a US accredited representative and three other investigators to Jakarta, Indonesia. The team has expertise in operations, human performance, airplane structures and systems. The NTSB team will be accompanied by personnel from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), General Electric (GE) and Boeing, according to Safety Board’s announcement.
On January 12, 2021, Indonesian search teams retrieved one of the two “black boxes”, namely the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) was brought ashore. For the search, the Indonesian government decided to deploy a remotely operated underwater vehicle.
The cockpit voice recorder is yet to be recovered. Efforts are made more difficult due to the muddy waters and debris from the jet scattered in the sea. On January 13, 2021, the search had to be stopped due to bad weather and big waves.
Before the fatal crash, the Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 was stored for nine months and was certified as airworthy in December 2020. On its final flight, the aircraft carried 62 people onboard. About five minutes after takeoff, the Sriwijaya Air jet plunged into the Java Sea near Laki Island, Indonesia.