The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has appointed an accredited representative — alongside three other investigators — to participate in the Indonesia-led investigations of the 9 January crash of Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182. Joining the investigators in Jakarta will also be a team from the US Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, as well as GE Aviation. “[The] team has expertise in operations, human performance, airplane structures and systems,” the NTSB adds in a series of tweets. The board is participating under ICAO Annex 13, which call for the country in which an accident occurs to lead the investigation, or pass them to another country. ICAO guidelines also call for officials from the country in which the crashed aircraft’s manufacturer is based to be involved. The NTSB’s involvement comes a day after Indonesian officials retrieved the flight-data recorder from the stricken Boeing 737-500, which crashed into the sea shortly after departing Jakarta. Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), which will be taking the lead in investigations, has suggested that the aircraft had been heading in an unexpected direction following take-off from Jakarta for Pontianak. Investigators have also disclosed that it was likely the aircraft was intact before it crashed into the sea. It has also been reported that the crew did not declare an emergency before the incident, nor did they report any issues with the aircraft before it crashed. Unverified data from flight tracking sites suggest that contact was lost roughly 4min after take-off, with the aircraft reaching a maximum altitude of 10,900ft before rapidly descending to just 250ft, when transponder contact was lost. Officials are now searching for the aircraft’s cockpit-voice recorder, along with other aircraft parts and bodies of the victims. Fifty passengers, six active crew and six additional crew members were on board the aircraft, a 24-year-old former Continental Airlines jet.

Spirit Airlines and Southwest Airlines have “serious competitive concerns” about the planned strategic partnership between JetBlue Airways and American Airlines. Miramar, Florida-based Spirit on 7 January filed a complaint with the Department of Transportation (DOT), asking the agency to take a closer look at the plan, and ensure there are no anti-competitive measures within it that should be prohibited. Southwest says in an 11 January letter to the DOT that it joins Spirit in these reservations about the venture. Spirit’s complaint was not immediately available. “Spirit’s complaint mirrors Southwest’s concerns about the partnership, which are especially acute at slot-controlled airports that both American and JetBlue serve, particularly Ronald Reagan Washington National airport (DCA) and New York La Guardia airport (LGA),” Dallas-based Southwest writes. “The competitive issues … are magnified by the fact that JetBlue acquired the great majority of its DCA and LGA slots via government-mandated slot divestitures based on JetBlue’s role as an independent low-cost carrier (LCC) that would exert competitive discipline against dominant legacy airlines at those airports.” The airline adds that if American and JetBlue begin to coordinate their services, this “would obviously no longer be considered an independent LCC providing competitive discipline to American or other legacy carriers”. In its own letter to the DOT, the National Air Carrier Association (NACA), which represents low-cost and cargo carriers including Spirit, Frontier AIrlines, Allegiant Air, Sun Country Airlines and Atlas Air, says on 8 January that it supports the concerns, and is requesting an investigation of the planned cooperation “to determine if implementation of these agreements would constitute an anticompetitive unfair method of competition that must be prohibited consistent with the public interest”. American and JetBlue announced the partnership last July, saying at the time they propose to operate codeshare flights and offer reciprocal frequent flier benefits, in order to better weather the coronavirus crisis. The joint venture would be focused on cities in the Northeast USA. In a letter to the DOT at that time, Southwest did not completely oppose the collaboration but said “certain aspects of the transaction raise potentially serious anticompetitive concerns that should be thoroughly investigated and remedied”. “For example, there have been media reports that the two carriers envision a much greater degree of cooperation and coordination than mere codesharing,” it adds. American, it maintains, dominates slots at the two major East Coast airports, and has an unfair advantage should it share its resources with JetBlue as part of the deal. The two airlines would together have 64% of slots at Reagan National, and 32% at LaGuardia, according to 2020 figures it quotes from the FAA. Southwest’s figures for the two airports were 9% and 5%, respectively.

The Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 that crashed four minutes after taking off from Jakarta went into storage in March 2020, and was certified to be airworthy by Indonesian authorities in December, before its re-entry into service. The Indonesian transport ministry and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) add that the carrier had “met the stipulated conditions” for the extension of its aircraft operation certificate (AOC), after a routine check in November. The stricken aircraft, a 24-year-old 737 registered PK-CLC, also underwent inspection on 14 December after being in storage since 23 March amid the coronavirus pandemic, said the Indonesian DGCA. Director-General of Civil Aviation Novie Riyanto says the inspection is routine for all aircraft that had been parked, and is part of return-to-service procedures. The former Continental Airlines jet had its airworthiness certificate extended to 17 December 2021, and returned to Sriwijaya operations on 19 December, but did not fly any passengers. It was only on 22 December that it resumed passenger flights, discloses the Indonesian transport ministry. The authorities also conducted a separate inspection in early December on the aircraft’s engine bleed air 5th stage check valve, but it is unclear what the result was. This was in response to the US Federal Aviation Administration’s order for the inspection of US-operated 737 aircraft that have been parked for more than a week, for corrosion of engine bleed air valves. PK-CLC, operating flight SJ182, plunged into the sea after take-off on 9 January, killing 62 passengers and crew. Unverified data from flight tracking sites suggest that contact was lost roughly 4min after take-off, with the aircraft reaching a maximum altitude of 10,900ft before rapidly descending to just 250ft, when transponder contact was lost. Search and rescue operations are still ongoing, with the authorities closing in on the location of the aircraft’s cockpit-voice and flight-data recorders. So far, Indonesian search and rescue agency Basarnas says aircraft debris, as well as bodies and clothing, have been pulled from the Java Sea. Reports, citing investigators, have also indicated that the aircraft was likely to have remained intact before it hit the water. It was also reported that the crew did not declare an emergency before the incident, nor did they report any issues with the aircraft before it crashed.