Adam Air (incorporated as PT. Adam SkyConnection Airlines) was a privately owned airline based in West Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia. It operated scheduled domestic services to over 20 cities and international services to Penang and Singapore. Its main base was Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta.

Although sometimes referred to as a low-cost carrier, it marketed itself as an airline straddled between low-cost and traditional carriers, offering both on-board meal service and low fares, similar to the model adopted by Singapore-based Valuair. Prior to the crash of Flight 574, it had been the fastest-growing low-cost carrier in Indonesia.

History

thumb|Adam Air [[Boeing 737-200 in its standard livery]]

Adam Air was founded in 2002 by Agung Laksono, an Indonesian businessman and the Speaker of Indonesia's House of Representatives, and Sandra Ang. Sandra Ang is from an Indonesian-Chinese family which owned the airline. The airline was named after Sandra Ang's 26-year-old son Adam Suherman, who was named chief executive officer (CEO) of the airline. After studying in the United States<!--College-->, Suherman suggested that his family form an airline.

The airline was established in 2002 and began operations on 19 December 2003 with two Boeing 737-400 aircraft leased from GE Commercial Aviation Services with first flight was from Jakarta to Medan and Denpasar. Adam Air ultimately sold a fifty percent stake of itself to PT Bhakti Investama.

Aviation consultant Gerry Soejatman stated that Adam Air was successful because of its "fresh image", referring to the bright colors of the airline's livery and uniforms. On August 22, 2006, Soejatman posted on Airliners.net, accusing the airline of poorly maintaining its aircraft, saying that any Adam Air aircraft is at risk of becoming "a smoking hole in the ground."

Controversy

Safety

Adam Air's safety record, like a number of other Indonesian airlines, had been heavily criticised.

After an incident in which an Adam Air aircraft landed away from its intended destination, the pilots blamed a malfunctioning navigation system.

On 21 February 2007 it was reported that 13 Adam Air employees, as well as an employee of airport operator PT Angkasa Pura, working at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport had been arrested for fraudulent data manipulation. The scheme involved manipulating passenger data to show passengers as 'leaving the country'. This meant that they were automatically charged a duty of 30,000 Rupiah each, when in reality they owed none. The money was then split between fourteen staff members. A computer from the check-in desk, as well as passenger tickets and lists, were seized.

On 17 May 2007 Adam Air pilots decided to resign due to poor navigational systems with which they were forced to fly. The airline sued all of them since their contract length had not been fulfilled. A Liputan 6 article stated that Adam Air was not attempting to claim for damage caused by the pilots' public accusations of poor safety standards. Although no details were immediately released, it was revealed that the airline had had a string of recent accidents, making Adam Air a likely candidate. It was announced on March 22 that Adam Air was one of seven airlines that would lose their licences within three months unless they could improve their safety standards. The other six airlines involved were Bouraq Indonesia Airlines, Transwisata Prima Aviation, Tri-MG Intra Asia Airlines, Manunggal Air Services, Jatayu Airlines and Kartika Airlines.

It was reported on June 28, 2007, that Adam Air would escape shutdown and had upgraded its safety rating to the middle tier. By then, four airlines had had their licences revoked and five others were grounded pending improvements.

As reported on the local news, Adam Air reduced many of its flights. Adam Air decreased its frequencies to only several flights departing both from Jakarta Airport and Surabaya Airport.

On 16 March 2008, Adam Air was given 21 days by the Indonesian government to decide whether to close down after safety concerns prompted an investment group to unload its 50 percent stake in the airline. The following day, the president of Adam Air announced that more than half of the fleet had been seized after the airline defaulted on payments.

"Out of 22 planes, now we only have 10 because 12 of them have been declared in default. The other 10 have been declared in default as well, but I'm still trying to work out a way to restructure the payments," Adam Suherman was quoted as saying.

On 18 March 2008, after an accident at Batam, in which a Boeing 737 skidded off the runway while landing, the Indonesian government suspended Adam Air's Air Operator Certificate and gave them three months to show safety improvements.

On 18 June 2008, the Indonesian government revoked Adam Air's operator certificate, and the airline ceased operations.

Prior to its demise, the company was in serious financial trouble. The company's owner (Sandra Ang) had been allegedly embezzling the company's money. The financial losses from the embezzlement reportedly amounted to Rp 2.1 trillion (approximately US$210 million). On August 12, 2008, the Indonesian police named Sandra Ang as a suspect for money embezzlement. She was later arrested and also banned from leaving the country.

By the end of 2008, almost every single one of Adam Air's planes was returned to lessor. Only 1 of its 737-200s remained, which was scrapped in Bandung 3 years later.

Fleet

Adam Air's fleet consisted of Boeing 737s during its entire operation.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em auto; text-align:center"

|+ Adam Air fleet

|-

!Aircraft

!Total

!Introduced

!Retired

!Notes

|-

|Airbus A300-600

|1

|2005

|2005

|leased from Air Paradise International

|-

|Boeing 737-200

|6

|rowspan=2|2004

|rowspan=4|2008

|

|-

|Boeing 737-300

|7

|One crashed

as Flight 172

|-

|Boeing 737-400

|13

|rowspan=2|2003

|One crashed as Flight 574

|-

|Boeing 737-500

|1

|

|-

|}

Destinations

Indonesia

  • Java
  • Jakarta (Soekarno-Hatta International Airport) - main hub
  • Malang (Abdul Rachman Saleh Airport)
  • Semarang (Achmad Yani Airport)
  • Surabaya (Juanda International Airport) - secondary hub
  • Surakarta (Adisumarmo International Airport)
  • Yogyakarta (Adisucipto International Airport)
  • Kalimantan
  • Balikpapan (Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Airport)
  • Banjarmasin (Syamsudin Noor Airport)
  • Pontianak (Supadio Airport)
  • Lesser Sunda Islands
  • Denpasar (Ngurah Rai Airport)
  • Kupang (El Tari International Airport)
  • Mataram (Selaparang Airport)
  • Sulawesi
  • Makassar (Hasanuddin International Airport)
  • Manado (Sam Ratulangi Airport)
  • Sumatra
  • Banda Aceh (Sultan Iskandarmuda Airport)
  • Bandar Lampung (Radin Inten II Airport)
  • Bengkulu (Fatmawati Soekarno Airport)
  • Jambi (Sultan Thaha Airport)
  • Medan (Polonia International Airport) - focus city
  • Padang (Minangkabau International Airport)
  • Palembang (Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport)
  • Pangkal Pinang (Pangkalpinang Airport)
  • Pekanbaru (Sultan Syarif Qasim II International Airport)

Malaysia

  • Penang (Penang International Airport)

Singapore

  • Singapore (Changi Airport)

Incidents and accidents

In 2006, one aircraft skidded off a runway, and two others were operated despite known malfunctions related to landing gear.

Flight 782

thumb|PK-KKE, the 737-300 involved as Flight 782, on 1 December 2004

On 11 February 2006, Adam Air Flight 782, a Boeing 737-300 registered as PK-KKE, lost navigational and communications systems 20 minutes into a flight from Jakarta to Makassar, Sulawesi. The aircraft was subsequently flown into a radar "black spot" and was lost for several hours, eventually making an emergency landing at Tambolaka Airport, Sumba (on a different island away from their intended destination, and southeast from their origin, instead of northeast). The pilot in that incident was fired. Adam Air broke multiple safety regulations, including removing an aircraft before it was due for inspection by aviation authorities.

Flight 574

thumb|PK-KKW, the aircraft involved as Flight 574, seen here on 23 March 2006

On 1 January 2007, air traffic controllers lost contact with Adam Air Flight 574 en route from Surabaya (SUB) to Manado (MDC). The aircraft, a Boeing 737-400 with the registration PK-KKW (c/n 24070), had 96 passengers and 6 crew. On January 10, parts of the aircraft's tail stabilizer were found offshore.

The flight recorders and suspected debris were located, but were not initially recovered due to a dispute between Adam Air and the Indonesian Government over who should pay recovery costs. Both recorders were retrieved after Adam Air agreed to pay for seven days of searching. A 2009 episode of Mayday (Air Crash Investigation, Air Emergency) about Flight 574 stated that the official crash report had concluded the Inertial Reference System (IRS) had failed. This failure, which should not by itself have brought the plane down, caused the pilots to become preoccupied with trying to fix it. After changing the IRS from "Navigate" mode to "Attitude" mode, the pilots failed to manually fly the plane while the computer system recalibrated, a procedure that takes about 30 seconds. The failure to maintain straight and level flight during the recalibration caused the autopilot to completely disengage and cease compensating for the plane's tendency to roll to the right, which caused the nose of the plane to dip. In attempting to correct the pitch of the aircraft before levelling the wings, the pilot sent the aircraft into an unrecoverable downward spiral, leading to the plane suffering massive structural failure as it descended at nearly the speed of sound. The investigation disclosed that the accident aircraft, including the faulty IRS and several other systems, had been the subject of more than 40 pilot complaints, or "write ups" in the months prior to the crash.

Flight 172

thumb|Adam Air Flight 172 after impact on the runway

On 21 February 2007, Adam Air Flight 172, a Boeing 737-300 aircraft flying from Jakarta to Surabaya with registration PK-KKV (c/n 27284), had a hard landing at Juanda International Airport. The incident caused the fuselage of the plane to crack and bend at the middle, with the tail of the plane drooping towards the ground. There were no reports of serious injuries from the incident. Subsequent flights to the airport were diverted to alternate airports. As a result, six Adam Air 737s were grounded awaiting safety checks, but five of these were then put back in regular service. Adam Air described this as "harsh punishment" for an accident it blamed on poor weather conditions, but Vice President Jusuf Kalla has said that all Boeing 737-300s should be checked.

Flight 292

On 10 March 2008, Adam Air Flight 292, a Boeing 737-400 registered as PK-KKT, flying from Jakarta to Batam, skidded off the end of the runway while landing in Batam. All 171 passengers and 6 crew members survived, with two passengers treated for shock. The plane sustained damage to one wing and was ultimately written off by its lessor. This accident contributed to the airline's demise, just eight days later, and the formal revocation of its AOC three months later. The incident also illustrated that crew were not trained correctly on evacuation procedures. In particular, during the evacuation of this aircraft no slides were deployed to allow the passengers off the aircraft.

References

  • Adamair.co.id (Archive)