Indonesian crashed plane passed inspection last month
Flight SJ182, which was grounded between March and December last year, resumed commercial flights on 22 Dec
The Sriwijaya Air plane which crashed into the sea on Saturday had passed an airworthiness inspection last month, officials have said.
Flight SJ182, which was grounded between March and December last year, resumed commercial flights on 22 Dec, reports the BBC.
Preliminary findings also showed the aircraft was still functioning and intact before it crashed.
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The plane had 62 people on board when it plunged into the Java Sea. The cause of the crash remains unknown.
On Monday, Indonesian police identified its first victim - Okky Bisma, a 29-year-old flight attendant on the plane.
Indonesia's Transport Ministry on Tuesday said the Boeing 737 had been grounded during the pandemic, and passed an inspection on 14 December.
It made its first flight five days later with no passengers, then resumed commercial flights shortly after that.
Separately, the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) said that preliminary findings showed the aircraft reached the height of 10,900ft (3.3km) at 14:36 local time on Saturday (07:36 GMT), then made a steep drop to 250ft at 14:40, before it stopped transmitting data.
KNKT head Soerjanto Tjahjono added that the plane's turbine disc with a damaged fan blade had been found - ruling out the theory that the plane exploded mid-air.
"The damaged fan blade indicates that the machine was still functioning when it crashed. This [is] also in line with the belief that the plane's system was still functioning when it reached 250ft," said Mr Soerjanto in a written statement to reporters.
