(Image: Channel News Asia)
The plane crash of Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 has brought light to many major concerns for Indonesian aviation safety. Prior to the latest crash that happened over the weekend, there have been 697 fatalities in Indonesia over the last decade including military and private planes.
Indonesia now holds the title of having the deadliest aviation market in the world which makes flying in Indonesia, riskier than Russia, Iran and Pakistan - according to Aviation Safety Network's database.
The crash of the Sriwijaya flight, operated by a Boeing 737-500, follows the loss of a Lion Air 737 MAX in October 2018. The 2018 accident contributed to a global grounding of the Boeing aircraft model.
The Lion Air crash, which killed 189 people, was an outlier in plane crash causes as the accident was later revealed to be caused by fundamental issues with the plane model and triggered a worldwide safety crisis for Boeing. For a decade, the European Union banned Indonesian airlines flights, ending in the year 2018. The ban was imposed following a series of crashes and reports of deteriorating oversight and maintenance.
Indonesia's air safety record has improved in recent years, receiving a favourable evaluation by the United Nations aviation agency in 2018. Indonesia will always have unstoppable demand for air travel as it is an archipelago and Indonesia will be striving for standards that mature markets took decades to reach.