Adam Air Flight 574
Adam Air Flight 574 (KI574 or DHI574) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by Adam Air between the Indonesian cities of Surabaya and Manado that crashed into the Makassar Strait near Polewali in Sulawesi on 1 January 2007. All 102 people on board died, making it the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 737-400. A national investigation was launched into the disaster. The final report, released on 25 March 2008, concluded that the pilots lost control of the aircraft after they became preoccupied with troubleshooting the inertial navigation system and inadvertently disconnected the autopilot. Despite a series of safety incidents, which contributed to the shut down of Adam Air in 2008, this was the only incident resulting in fatalities during the airline's 5-year existence.
PK-KKW, the aircraft involved in the accident, photographed in 2006 | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 1 January 2007 |
| Summary | In-flight breakup due to inertial navigation system malfunction leading to spatial disorientation; pilot error |
| Site | Makassar Strait off Majene, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Black boxes at 03°41′02″S 118°08′53″E and 03°40′22″S 118°09′16″E 03°40′44″S 118°09′4″E |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-4Q8 |
| Operator | Adam Air |
| IATA flight No. | KI574 |
| ICAO flight No. | DHI574 |
| Call sign | ADAM SKY 574 |
| Registration | PK-KKW |
| Flight origin | Soekarno–Hatta International Airport Jakarta |
| Stopover | Juanda International Airport Surabaya, East Java |
| Destination | Sam Ratulangi International Airport Manado, North Sulawesi |
| Occupants | 102 |
| Passengers | 96 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 102 |
| Survivors | 0 |
The crash is one of several transportation accidents, including the subsequent non-fatal crash of Flight 172, which resulted in the United States downgrading its safety rating of Indonesian aviation and led to large-scale transportation safety reforms in Indonesia. All Indonesian airlines were banned from flying into the European Union for several years after the crash. Adam Air was banned from flying by the Indonesian government in March 2008, and declared bankruptcy in June of the same year.