Boeing considers spreading wings with new plane

The cockpit voice recorder from a crashed Indonesian jet has been retrieved in “good condition”, officials said Wednesday, more than two months after the airliner plunged into the sea killing all 62 passengers and crew.

Divers had been searching the Java Sea for the missing voice recorder from a crashed Sriwijaya Air jet

The CVR records flight crew conversations and could offer critical clues about why the Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 dived around 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) into waters off Jakarta just minutes after takeoff on January 9.

The jet’s flight data recorder, which holds information about the speed, altitude and direction of the plane, was earlier plucked from the wreckage-littered Java Sea.

Authorities said Wednesday that the voice recorder unit was in good condition, despite having been in the water for months.

“So we’re confident that we will be able to download its data,” said Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee.

Investigators want to mine the recorder in the hopes of learning what the crew was saying when the flight from the capital to Pontianak in Borneo went down.

Cockpit voice and flight data recorders are known as black boxes and help explain nearly 90 percent of all crashes, according to aviation experts.

The voice device was found Tuesday evening on the last day of an operation that used dredging equipment to comb the muddy seabed, after the dive search failed to locate it, they said.

“It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack,” Tjahjono told reporters earlier Wednesday.

“But without the CVR, it would be very difficult to find the cause of the Sriwijaya Air accident.”

A preliminary report last month into the crash said crews on previous flights had described the jet’s throttle system as “unserviceable” and that it had been repaired several times before its fatal final flight.

The report said a catastrophic throttle malfunction and possible human error were among the factors being considered.

But investigators had said it was too early to pinpoint a cause.

The 737 had sharply deviated from its intended course just before its plunge.

Despite appeals from air traffic controllers, the crew — including an experienced captain — did not respond to questions about the sudden change of direction.

The 26-year-old plane was flown by US-based Continental Airlines and United Airlines before it was purchased by Sriwijaya, which flies to destinations in Indonesia and across Southeast Asia.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago that relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands, has suffered a string of deadly plane crashes in recent years.

In October 2018, 189 people were killed when a Boeing 737 MAX jet with Lion Air plunged into the sea.

That accident — and another in Ethiopia — led to the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX over a faulty anti-stall system.

The 737 that crashed in January was not a MAX variant.

As many neighboring countries have set out to reopen borders to inbound travelers, Vietnam’s tourism heavyweights are petitioning for an elaborate protocol where vaccinated tourists are allowed to enter the country without having to spend 14 days in quarantine.

Considering the current success that Vietnam has achieved against the spread of COVID-19, it is essential that the locations for the proposed reopening be isolated places with low population density to ensure safety for tourists as well as Vietnamese citizens.

The right location

The draft reopening plan for international tourists, formulated by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, has recently been presented to business representatives and experts in the tourism sector for appraisal.

During a dialogue event, tourism businesses pointed out that Vietnam is already one step behind neighboring countries in bringing back international visitors.

Huynh Van Son, general director of Sea Star Co. Ltd., said that the road map to such reopening should be finalized early, with criteria for selecting locations, capable firms, and a plan for stimulating demand to be included.

“The tourism sector is already in a slough, but we are not asking for bailout packages from the government,” Son said.

“What we need is a road map to safe reopening to bring back international tourists.”

Son also suggested a trial phase with limited reopening in certain locations, which will inform a similar process in other locales during the next phases.

Phu Quoc Island off southern Kien Giang Province, with low population concentration, adequate isolation from the mainland, sufficient infrastructure, hotel and service quality, and an established reputation might tick all the boxes, Son proposed.

Phu Quoc also proves the perfect location to boost the development of a night-time economy, an initiative currently promoted by the Vietnamese government, he added.

Nguyen The Lam, president of Phu Quoc Investment Tourism Development Association, pointed out that vaccine is the only ray of hope for global connection at the moment, which inexorably led to a need for COVID-19 vaccination certificates, or informally ‘vaccine passports.’

However, in order for ‘vaccine passports’ to yield effectiveness, the tourist industry needs to find tourists with demand and free time, connecting them with suitable destinations.

This requires prioritization of promotion, outreach activities, as well as longer tours with more competitive pricing.

“We look forward to welcoming back tourists without having to wait for quarantine,” Lam said.

To Viet Thang, deputy CEO of domestic budget carrier Vietjet Air, stated that a safe flight protocol is crucial in ensuring safety in the reopening plan.

In this regard, Vietjet has recently acquired a seven-star rating, the highest mark for COVID-19 safety compliance, awarded by the world’s famous airline safety and product rating website AirlineRating.

“With 80 operating aircraft, an established reputation, and capability on international routes, we are ready to relaunch all international flights once allowed to,” Thang declared.

Tourism experts weigh in on Vietnam’s plan to reopen borders to foreign tourists. Photo: Chi Cong / Tuoi Tre

Optimizing profit

Vietnam needs to take action on the reopening immediately, despite being hardly able to pinpoint a reopening date at the moment due to a slow vaccine rollout that proves little progress in ensuring herd immunity, according to Nguyen Huu Y Yen, CEO of travel agency Saigontourist.

Considering this, the tourism sector needs to pick out safe locations for reopening and devise high-quality products and services to activate the demand of international visitors.

The COVID-19 protocols of visitors’ home countries should be taken into account as well, Yen added.

“Tourists will not travel if we open but they are still subject to quarantine when returning to their countries,” Yen said.

Over the past year, the tourism sector has shambled by all counts, with 25,000 tour guides leaving the sector, while hotels see room occupancy drop to all-time lows.

However, businesses have not given up all hope.

Tran Thi Nguyen, a representative of Sun Group, suggested that a quick test on arrival for tourists be rolled out if vaccination passports are deemed improper.

If a visitor turns in two negative tests, one of them conducted before boarding the plane, that person should be allowed into the country without having to spend 14 days in quarantine.

“While Vietnam is formulating a standardized protocol for reopening, we need communication campaigns so that foreign tourists don’t forget us,” Nguyen said, also pointing to Taiwan as a prospective market since the island did exceptionally well in fending off COVID-19.

International visitors proved a wellspring for Vietnam’s budding tourism.

Despite only adding up to 18 million visits to Vietnam in 2019, compared to 85 million domestic visitors in the same year, international tourists generated 56 percent of revenue for Vietnamese tourism that year.

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India’s richest state, Maharashtra, is considering imposing a strict lockdown this week after recording the highest one-day jump in coronavirus infections of any Indian state since last March, officials said on Sunday.

Maharashtra tightened travel restrictions and imposed night curfews as it reported 40,414 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, almost two-thirds of the national total, many of them in the densely-populated financial capital Mumbai.

“In (Sunday’s) meeting of the (COVID-19) task force, it was suggested that very strict restrictions like lockdown should be imposed immediately,” the office of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said in a statement.

A senior official in the state government said the lockdown could take effect “in the coming days” as officials had been asked to prepare to implement it in a phased manner.

India recorded 62,714 new cases in the space of 24 hours on Sunday, the Health Ministry said – the biggest jump since October – as well as 312 deaths.

“We are seeing a higher COVID positive rate in high-rise residential buildings than in slums … to stop the spread, only essential services will be allowed (at night),” said Mumbai Mayor Kishor Pednekar. Hotels, pubs and shopping malls must observe the curfew.

Residential areas in Mumbai with five or more reported COVID-19 cases have been ordered to be sealed off.

Maharashtra’s Principal Health Secretary Pradeep Vyas said 107,000 of the state’s 357,000 isolation beds were occupied.

“In some districts, beds are not available and the capacity of the facility is falling short,” he added in a statement.

Cases are also rising in the states of Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.

In Delhi, Mumbai and elsewhere, there were bans or restrictions on the Hindu festival of Holi and the Muslim Shab-e-Barat or Day of Forgiveness, which both fell at the weekend and would usually prompt large gatherings.

But despite the curbs, hundreds of people gathered for a Holi ritual in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat on Sunday.

The surge in infections in India coincides with multi-stage state elections in West Bengal and Assam, seen as a test of support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of the pandemic and mass protests over sweeping agriculture reforms.

Only around 40 million people, or less than 4% of the population, have received at least one dose of vaccine so far, according to official data.

However, 61 million doses manufactured in India have been sent abroad under grants or commercial arrangements.

After widespread criticism, the government said last week it would focus on domestic vaccinations and there would be no immediate expansion of exports.