The disappearance of an AirAsia jet en route from Indonesia to Singapore on Sunday is the latest air incident for Indonesia, which has struggled with its air safety record. The sprawling archipelago nation of 250 million people is one of Asia’s most rapidly expanding airline markets, but is struggling to provide enough qualified pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers and updated airport technology to ensure safety. Here’s a look at some of the incidents over the past 20 years.
__ April 2013: A brand new Boeing 737-800 operated by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air crashes off the Indonesian resort island of Bali, slamming into the ocean short of the runway while attempting to land in the rain. All 108 people on board survived, and there were no serious injuries. It was Lion Air’s seventh accident since 2002.
__ May 2012: A Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet-100 slams into a volcano during a demonstration flight in Indonesia, killing all 45 people on board. Information recovered from the plane’s cockpit-voice and flight data recorders indicated the pilot in command was chatting with a potential buyer in the cockpit just before the plane slammed into dormant Mount Salak in West Java province.
__ January 2007: A Boeing 737 operated by Indonesia’s Adam Air vanishes on New Year’s Day on a domestic flight from Surabaya to Manado with 102 people aboard. Parts of the tail and other debris are found several days later, but it would take nearly nine months for the flight-data and cockpit recorders to be recovered. The fuselage is still on the ocean floor.
__ September 2005: A flight from Indonesia’s now-defunct Mandala Airlines is headed from Medan in north Sumatra to Bali when the plane crashes into a heavily populated residential area seconds after taking off, killing 149 people. The fatalities included 100 people aboard the plane and 49 on the ground. Seventeen people on the plane survived.