A 6-man team from the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) are in Medan collecting evidence and surveying the scene of last Thursdays crash. The aircraft, a Boeing-737-200, belonged to Indonesian domestic carrier Mandala and crashed shortly after take of into a populated area. The NTSB are the experts when it comes to crashes and most likely they were alerted because it was an American manufacturer.
As a Jakarta Post article points out, scavengers have hindered the examination, by taking parts of the engines for scrap. The plane was 24 years old, but supposedly was good for another 10 years or so. It is amazing what work-horses commercial airlines are and keeping them in the air for a maximum amount of time each day is where the money is made. As a trucker will tell you, 'we only make money when the wheels are turning'. Needless to say the newer the plane, the better the maintenance and the better the pilot, the less chance there is of crashing. Compare Mandala and Garuda Indonesia, the national carrier. Garuda gets new Airbuses and Airbus does the maintenance. The top pilots in the country fly these planes. Mandala is using old planes, local maintenance and pilots that are second-string when considered in relation to Garuda. Even national carriers have differences. I've flown Tarom (Romanian Airlines) and let me tell you, its not luxury! China Airlines has a reputation of getting new planes and putting young inexperienced (relative to other airlines) pilots in charge. They have had a series of accidents in the last 15 years due to pilot error.
If you have the choice, choose the better airline. Saving $50 isn’t worth it. Of course everything is relative, you could fly to Indonesia on Singapore Airlines, then fly out to some island on a local charter piece of junk, so there goes your safety, but if I have the choice I try not to choose the absolute cheapest option.
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