Indonesia’s transport ministry announced on December 29, 2021 that a ban on the Boeing (BA.N) 737 MAX had been lifted. Novie Riyanto, the Director General of Air Transportation, stated, “After the inquiry process is completed and adjustments to the plane’s system are made, the transport ministry will allow airlines to resume flying the aircraft in its territories.”

After the Lion Air flight in Indonesia on Oct. 29, 2018, and an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft on March 10, 2019, both crashed, governments grounded the Boeing 737 Max. A total of 346 people were killed. Investigations revealed serious flight control issues on the plane’s previous flight, as well as signs of angle-of-attack (AoA) sensor and other instrument failures on that and previous flights, all linked to a design flaw in the 737 MAX series’ Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS).

Regulators lay out the detailed procedures for inspecting and approving each plane before it is allowed to return to commercial operation. Every new aircraft undergoes flight-critical ground testing, Boeing and customer test flights, and a thorough customer inspection. Before granting an airworthiness certificate, the FAA will conduct in-person, individual reviews of each new aeroplane. Airplanes in a customer’s service have their own procedures and inspections. These include submitting documentation of all completed adjustments to the local regulator and conducting a system testing flight. However, Garuda Indonesia’s chief executive, Irfan Setiaputra, said the airline had no intentions to reinstate the plane to its fleet because it is focusing on a debt restructuring process.