LCC’s Safety Measures Scrutinized

With the disappearance of the Adam Air plane, public focus has returned to the issue of safety of Indonesian airlines, especially of the new budget airlines or LCC’s (low cost carriers). Last year, Adam Air made headlines when one of its Boeing 737’s went missing for hours following navigation and communications breakdown, eventually making an emergency landing in Tambolaka, a pioneer airport hundreds of miles from its final destination.

The airline had broken several civil aviation regulations that day, including flying the plane away from the scene before an inspection by aviation authorities. The pilot was fired, but government regulators would not say if the airline was fined, citing confidentiality regulations.
Now legislators and the public are wondering whether Indonesia’s cheap-fare airlines cared enough about their passengers’ safety?  
 
Despite assurances that passengers’ safety was their chief concern, rumours begun to circulate in the internet of the callous ways how Adam Air’s management cared little about their pilots, nor about airline safety.

In response to these complaints, the government decided to step up enforcements of safety regulations. Aircraft ramp checks are now undertaken daily. Each airline now must appoint more than one official responsible for inspectors’ ramp checks. The larger the number of aircrafts operated by an airline, the more this company must assign such officials.

The Department of Transportation further reminded pilots that they should not change flight paths en route without prior consultation with, and the agreement from, the corresponding traffic control tower. The Adam Air missing plane is reported to have changed flight paths twice to avoid bad weather, as heard in the tower flight recording.