Adam Air crash in Sulawesi Indonesia

Adam Air, one of Indonesia’s budget airlines, has lost a plane carrying 96 passengers and 6 crew, over Sulawesi.

The airline industry was deregulated in 1999 in Indonesia, spawning many small airlines. Air crashes occur most often, when human error is involved. This latest crash occured after the 17 year old plane, left Surabaya in bad weather conditions at 1pm Sunday. We have had very strong winds and rain lately in Bali, so Sulawesi was probably experiencing something similar.

Adam Air’s plane was heading to Manado, the diving area in NE Sulawesi. I have met dive instructors who live in Bali and accept work all over the country, on a short term basis, taking care of people on live-aboard boats. Manado is a very popular area, so I’m sure the diving industry has suffered losses.

When travelling domestically by air, in Indonesia, you cannot control a lot of things, including the weather. One tnig you can control is the airline you use. As is the case in every country, the national carrier, in this case Garuda, will have better planes, pilots, maintenance. Smaller airlines use older, second hand planes. If you have a choice, you might pay the extra and fly Garuda.