Blake.Waterman

27y/o airframe or not. Ripped of Vertical stabilizer is an extremely rare occurrence and more importantly will in all likelyhood lead to a much less stable terminal flight profile. Whatever accuracy we assume for FR24 data the speeds/altitudes indicate rather clearly an aircraft that went in nose first. Losing the V/S will very likely lead to much more erratic profiles/behahviour on the way down.
In any case the FDR will give clear indication about directional control on the way down and will thus answer this question relatively quickly.

Flight Global reporting return of accident aircraft from storage:
Crashed Sriwijaya 737 certified airworthy after nine-month storage: investigators | News | Flight Global

(Apologies if this was posted previously)
WR 6-3

Added: Wall Street Journal now reporting parallel information, with some quotations attributed to pertinent officials (and some consultants as well).

It's somewhat disconcerting that this is Sriwijaya's 5th 737 loss since 2008 according to Flight Global, and in early 2020 Indonesian media reports indicated that a "half of Sriwijaya’s fleet was grounded owing to a lack of spare parts".

The sheer amount of idle-born speculation on this thread reminds me of why I spend so little time here.
I checked in to check up if we had a FDR yet.
I suspect that most people on this thread have never had a seat in the cockpit. Your suppositions, wild imaginings and shameless posturing of your bombast is all utterly disgusting and in incredibly bad taste.
Lives have been lost. The reasons are yet unknown - and therefore neither Rumour or News.
If you are not industry related you have no right posting this dreck here. Isn't there somewhere else you can go online and post this nonsense? amongst your own kind, as it were.

FDR has been recovered and handed over to Transportation Indonesia authorities

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....4561fc146c.jpg

unworry

Hard to tell for sure, given that the container is half full of water for no apparent reason, but it looks like one of the original AlliedSignal/Honeywell 980-4700 series. That would make it about the same vintage as the aircraft itself.

The reason to keep it under water is to keep parts from oxidizing.

Expanding slightly on the above answer;

Question: Why, after a plane has crashed into the water, do investigators put the "black box" back in water? – Will Cowger, Houston Answer: If a flight data recorder is recovered from the water, it is submerged in fresh, clean water to prevent deposits such as salt or minerals from drying out within the device.

When the technicians at the laboratory are ready to download the data, they take the recorder out of the freshwater bath, carefully open it and dry any sections that have been exposed to water. They then download the data into special computers that can read the information.

Think about the "Mary Rose" or the "Vasa" - they were kept in a wet environment for years after they were recovered

Why are FDRs and CVRs recovered from underwater transported to where they are analysed in water?

Aviation StackExchange: Why is the FDR and CVR put into water again after a water crash?

The article in the above link links to NTSB: Flight Data Recorder Handbook for Aviation Accident Investigations (PDF)

The NTSB Handbook in section 3.9 says:
This demonstrates that for the NTSB at least (and likely for other organisations), this is standard practice, even though the handbook does not detail why the procedure should be followed. There is plenty of uninformed comment on the Internet giving unreferenced opinions on why this procedure is followed. Most Internet search engines will allow you to find such opinions.

The salts in seawater form an elecrolyte that corrodes any exposed metal alloy (in practice all used metals, it is very rare to find any that is 100% pure), or even pure metals if there are different types in close proximity like PCB-s. This is a rather slow process, but if oxygen (air) is introduced, it speeds up dramatically, as fresh surfaces created by the electrolytic process are immediately oxidised, and the oxide film amplifies the electrolitc process. Any electronic equipment accidentally or otherwise immersed in seawater needs to be either rinsed thoroughly with distilled water immediately, or left in freshwater that protects it from air. Even leaving it immersed in salt water is better than exposing it to air. While the FDR memory chips (actually the whole memory module) is sealed in plastic and resin, the contacts and supporting circuitry will be corroded if this precaution is not taken, and readout will become much more complicated, requiring the disassembly of the memory module. Much easier and safer to keep it immersed, and have it cleaned and dried in the lab.

Which part you don't understand ? In the overwhelming majority of LOC incidents, faced with a spinning altimeter the pilots are far too busy trying to figure out what is happening and how to save themselves (and all those behind them) than to waste precious time on a radio call of no immediate benefit.

andrasz

Quite so.

Elapsed time from the initial divergence from the departure track, until impact with the Java Sea: 33 seconds

Doesn't the FAA say that any pilot can diagnose the problem in 4 secs. and apply corrective measures?

Applying corrective measures may not be the problem, responsive corrective measures may be the issue.

At Lockerbie, the pilots probably knew they had a sudden decompression, but no matter what corrective action they took, it was out of their hands.

andrasz

Absolutely agreed. At best, it would be a conscious (and correct) decision to prioritise 'aviate' over 'communicate'. Alternatively it could be that the crew became dumbstruck. The power of coherent speech, especially on the radio, quickly declines when adrenaline surges in a survival situation. The ability to listen goes early as well. Visual comprehension survives longest as stress levels increase, so at least Mother Nature has wired our brains in a way that suits the priorities of emergency handling!

andrasz, Having been in a nasty incident myself many years ago, I fully agree. Even on a three crew aircraft, all three of us were totally occupied with no time for a radio call until much later.

Interesting. Indonesian Plane Went From No Flights to 132 in Less Than a Month The mothballing adds another possible factor in the crash of the 26-year-old Boeing 737-500, which killed 62 people on Sriwijaya Air Flight 182.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/w...gtype=Homepage

Doesn't look good for finding the CVR. There are 2 pingers on top of that box and a torn up chunk of recorder box.

foxcharliep2

Once again the medias filling the gaps...PK-CLC resumed service on the 20th December following a 9 month storage, then it flew 5-6 legs a day which is fairly consistent with a short-haul regional airline...