Components of the crashed Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 including the flight-control computer, autothrottle computer, and autothrottle actuator assembly are undergoing examination, a Indonesian parliamentary commission has heard. The commission held a session on 3 February during which various representatives involved in the inquiry provided preliminary information on the flight and updated parliamentarians on progress with the investigation. Investigation authority KNKT informed the commission that the aircraft – operating Jakarta-Pontianak on 9 January – took off at around 14:36 on 9 January, initially heading west-northwest before turning north, whereupon there was a communication request for a heading of 075° at 14:38:51. But although aircraft continued to turn to the right as it climbed it does not appear to have reached this heading, according to a flightpath diagram presented to the commission. About 10s after the heading exchange the crew was instructed to hold altitude at 11,000ft. KNKT states that, having received the air traffic control instruction to stay at this altitude, the pilot changed the autopilot from the pre-programmed strategic mode – using LNAV and VNAV, lateral and vertical navigation – to the tactical mode, enabling pilot-selectable heading and vertical speed. “Then the aircraft began to slowly turn left until it finally dived down and hit the sea surface,” it says. According to the flightpath diagram, this deviation to the left appears to materialise just before 14:40, some 53s after the instruction to hold at 11,000ft and just after the crew was cleared to resume climbing to 13,000ft. The aircraft reached a maximum altitude of 10,900ft at 14:40:05 and then started rapidly to descend, with the last data point, indicating 250ft, received only 23s later. KNKT says it extracted 27h of information covering 18 flights from the flight-data recorder. Maintenance log records showed no damage to the aircraft during four flights on the day of the accident. “The findings on the aircraft’s engines show consistency with the engines’ still being on before the aircraft hit the water,” it adds. Both crew members were experienced. The captain of the aircraft had over 9,000h on type from a total of 17,900h while the first officer had nearly 5,000h on type. Over the previous 90 days they had respectively logged 142h and 113h. The component examination will include other key items including the ground-proximity warning system, says KNKT, and the inquiry plans simulations of the flight and interviews with Sriwijaya Air’s management. Climate and meteorological agency BMKG gave a detailed presentation pointing out that during take-off the cumulonimbus clouds above Jakarta had started to decay, with rain intensity reducing and visibility improving. Some cumulonimbus clouds over the western part of Java were moving south-east but BMKG states that the 737’s flightpath crossed an area with no significant cloud, rain or in-cloud turbulence. Over a 30min timeframe which included the aircraft’s short flight there were “no lightning strikes” in the area of the flightpath, it adds, with lightning concentrated only in the area south of Jakarta. Meteorological data for 7-9 January also indicated that the potential for icing lay at 16,000-27,000ft with none at 11,000ft – around the altitude to which the aircraft had climbed. Search teams have yet to recover the cockpit-voice recorder from the aircraft. The search-and-rescue authorities told the commission that the debris field, between the islands of Pulau Laki and Pulau Lancang, is spread over an area of length 110m and width 80m, at a depth of 16-23m.

Kenya Airways is removing seats on two of its Boeing 787s to increase capacity for pure freight flights. The airline says that it completed the first aircraft in January and has thereby become the first operator to configure a 787 for main-deck cargo transport. Up to 16t can be carried on the passenger deck under the modification, bringing the aircraft's maximum cargo payload to 46t, the airline adds. Kenya conducted the modification in-house under supervision of Canadian MRO provider Avianor. The project represented a "unique design and certification challenge", states Avianor chief executive Matthieu Duhaime. Kenya started using some of its nine 787s for cargo-only flights in 2020, but found that the seats limited cargo capacity.
Noting growth in air cargo demand, the airline says that the reconfiguration project "demonstrates our agility, innovation and quick thinking… to keep essential goods moving across the globe". Gilbert Kibe, director general of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, states: "This project is economically significant as it will retain and create new jobs as well as support Kenya Airways in its recovery efforts to diversify revenues. More importantly, with the upcoming vaccination distribution, Kenya Airways has readily positioned itself to transport the vaccines destined for Africa and other destinations."

Qantas is likely to fly its Airbus A380s again, according to the Australian carrier’s chief executive Alan Joyce, particularly on routes where tight scheduling is a factor. Speaking during a Eurocontrol event today, Joyce explained that while all 12 of the airline’s A380s “are sitting in the Mojave desert” – a reference to their storage at Victorville airport in California – and will remain grounded for at least three years, “we do think, if you look at the Qantas network, there are going to be opportunities to deploy those aircraft”. The carrier grounded all of its A380s by June last year as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic became apparent, leading to suggestions that it might follow carriers such as Air France in permanently removing the type from its future fleet plans.
Joyce states, however, that Qantas will continue to have “scheduling windows” that are likely to make A380 operations viable when international services return. “If you’ve ever been in LA between 10pm and midnight, you see six or seven Qantas aircraft departing for Australia, because it’s the only time that works with curfews,” he says. “So, instead of flying multiple frequencies right on top of each other, an A380 that’s fully or nearly fully written down, if it generates cash, will absolutely work.” He also cites the potential for A380s to return at “airports that have slot restrictions like Heathrow”. On the cash-generation point, Joyce explains that the A380s have been “written down… a couple of times” – most recently last year as Covid-19 prompted to the Australian government to introduce strict controls on international travel – reducing their burden on Qantas’ balance sheet. He adds: “So we do believe that there’s a need for that fleet and we do believe that it’s going to generate cash, and it’s all going to be about cash when we start up international”. Joyce further recalls that six of the aircraft have been reconfigured in recent years, with one example even flying “directly to the Mojave Desert” following a refit in Dresden. “It’s there with new seats on it that nobody has ever sat on, which is unbelievably disappointing,” he laments. Further into the future, Qantas’ plan for direct ultra-long-haul flights to destinations in Europe, North America and elsewhere means that, eventually, “we’ll have enough of the [Airbus A350-1000] aircraft to fly direct and overfly a lot of the hubs as well”, which would “take the burden of having the big aircraft needed for those big destinations” and mean A380s could be phased out. Qantas expects to make a decision on the launch and initial aircraft orders for those ultra-long-haul destinations later this year under its Project Sunrise programme, with first flights likely pushed back a year to 2024 because of the pandemic.