AirAsia final report blames crew, computer fault for crash

Indonesia's National Transport Safety committee has released the details of its investigation into the downing of AirAsia Flight QZ8501. The tragedy was the result of computer and human error, it said.

Deutsche Welle, 1 Dec 2015

The final report on the crash of an AirAsia flight that killed 162 people last year blamed the disaster on a combination of a technical fault and subsequent crew action. The findings were released on Tuesday after a nearly 12-month investigation into the tragedy.

The initial problem was a cracked soldering joint on part of the aircraft's computer system - specifically the Rudder Travel Limited system - which controls the rudder's movement. According to the report, this had caused a series of malfunctions - 23 times in the year leading up to the December 28, 2014, crash and four times during the last flight of the Airbus A320 airplane.

"Subsequent flight crew action resulted in inability to control the aircraft ... causing the aircraft to depart from the normal flight envelope and enter a prolonged stall condition that was beyond the capability of the flight crew to recover," said a statement from Indonesia's National Transport Safety committee.

After the fourth warning signal about the malfunction, the pilots of Flight QZ8501 flipped the circuit breakers on part of the plane's control panel in an attempt to reset the system. Instead, this caused the autopilot to switch off and the aircraft started to roll.

The report also stated that information from the flight data recorders did not enable investigators to determine what role the stormy weather that day played in the downing of the flight.

Flight QZ8501 had taken off from Surabaya, Indonesia, and was bound for Singapore. It crashed less than halfway into the two-hour flight. The disaster helped highlight the problematic traffic volume of flights in Southeast Asia, as air travel in the region increases in affordability and popularity.

es/tj (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

AirAsia Crash Victims Remembered at Ceremony in Central Kalimantan

Jakarta Globe, Mar 22, 2015

Victims of the AirAsia QZ8501 accident were commemorated in Central
Kalimantan on Sunday. (Antara Foto/Zabur Karuru)

Jakarta. Family members who lost loved when AirAsia Flight QZ8501 plunged into the Java Sea in December last year gathered for a remembrance ceremony at Kumai Bay in Central Kalimantan on Sunday.

Tears and tributes flowed as people remembered those onboard the Airbus A320-200, which vanished from radar screens on Dec. 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Surabaya to Singapore. All 162 people onboard died.

The search for the victims bodies was finally called off on Tuesday and Sunday’s event served as a final send off from AirAsia Indonesia and the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).

Basarnas chief Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo led a military ceremony before the group, which also included military officers and AirAsia Indonesia staff.

The commemoration continued with a scattering of flower petals and a prayer session. A traditional ceremony called Tepuk Tepung Tawar, which is meant to ward off bad luck, followed.

“I’ve fully accepted this. I pray that my daughter finds peace with God,” said Rohana, mother of Khairunnisa Haidar Fauzi, one of the stewardesses on the flight. “This memorial means a lot to me. I’m very thankful to Basarnas for having found my daughter’s body.”

Sunu Widyatmoko, president director of AirAsia Indonesia, said the memorial showed the airline’s concern and sympathy tow the vitims’ families.

“We’re distraught that we have been unable to find all the bodies from the accident,”Sunu said. “This marks the end of our search effort with Basarnas.”

A total of 56 bodies are still missing.

TransAsia crash adds to air safety concerns

As divers pull more bodies from a Taiwanese river where a TransAsia Airways propjet crashed shortly after takeoff, DW takes a look at the airline's safety record and what is known about the cause of the crash.

Deutsche Welle, 7 Feb 2015

Baggages are placed near the wreckage of TransAsia Airways plane Flight GE235
 after it crash landed into a river, in New Taipei City February 5, 2015 (Photo:
Reuters/Pichi Chuang)

The horrifying footage of TransAsia Flight GE235's crash on February 4 went viral around the world. Captured by at least two cars carrying dashboard cameras, the videos show how the plane banked steeply away from buildings in Taiwan's capital, Taipei, hit an elevated road and crashed into the Keelung River - leaving behind a trail of debris and a smashed taxi.

The TransAsia ATR 72-600 went down shortly after taking off from Taipei's downtown Songshan airport with 58 people on board, killing at least 35 of them. The one-year-old aircraft was bound for the Taiwanese island of Kinmen. Among those on board were 31 tourists from China, mainly from the southwestern city of Xiamen.

Engine shut down manually

As people in both Taiwan and China mourn the victims of the tragedy, investigators are frantically trying to find out what went wrong.

The footage of TransAsia's crash
went viral around the world

According to Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council, both engines of the turboprop plane failed before it plummeted into the shallow river.

"Based on the data we have so far, we can see that for a period of time both engines showed no thrust," said Thomas Wang, director of the agency, based on information from the flight data and voice recorders. "The right engine flamed out and triggered a warning in the cockpit. The left engine was shut down manually and the pilot tried to restart the engine but couldn't," Wang said, adding that it was "not clear" why the left engine was shut down manually. "We are not reaching any judgment yet," he said.

An engine "flameout" can occur when fuel supply to an engine is interrupted or when there is faulty combustion. A more detailed report on the crash will be available in next 30 days, with a final report expected in the next three to six months.

Similarities with British Midland Flight 92

According to Gerry Soejatman, an independent Jakarta-based aviation analyst,confusion among crew members seems to have led to the wrong engine being shut down. "The Flight Data Recorder shows that it was only in the last moments that the crew corrected their mistakes in an effort to restart the engines."

This would be similar to what happened to British Midland Flight 92 in 1989. Back then, a Boeing 737-400 crashed onto the embankment of the M1 motorway near Kegworth, UK, when the pilots shut down the wrong engine after the second one had malfunctioned.

Soejatman therefore believes the investigation into TransAsia Flight GE235 will likely look into the cause of the initial flameout, and how the crew ended up shutting down the wrong engine. Daniel Tsang, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Aspire Aviation, explains that typically planes are designed to be able to climb and take-off even under single engine failure.

Developed in 2007, the ATR72 600 is a new, more powerful version of the old ATR, and has PW127M engines, which enable a five percent increase in takeoff power. The propjet is a joint venture aircraft between Italy and France and is used extensively around the world with a high safety record. Given that a single engine failure is normally not enough to bring down a plane, Tsang believes other factors seem to have been at play with Flight GE235.

'Exceptional skill and bravery'

Whatever caused the plane to crash, the video footage also shows that the crew fought to save the airplane right up to the last moment. The pilot and co-pilot, whose bodies were retrieved from the cockpit, have been praised for what seems to be a last-ditch attempt to steer the plane away from populated areas.

"From what I can deduce, the pilots showed both exceptional skill and bravery in trying to keep the aircraft from hitting buildings or any built up area," Hugh Ritchie, chief executive of Aviation Consultants International, based in Australia, told DW.

The expert said that despite the engine flameout, a subsequent loss of lift and a significant loss of directional control, the crew managed to ensure that the aircraft missed buildings and it appears that they were trying to do a belly landing on the Keelung River.

Ritchie also pointed out the flameout may have been caused by a bird striking the engine: "Songshan Airport is renowned for bird strikes, with a large number of birds nesting on or around the runway in ground nests."

Safety record

Founded in 1951, TransAsia Airways is Taiwan's third largest airline. The private company mainly flies on domestic routes within Taiwan, but has also added some two dozen routes to mainland China. It also offers flights to other North Asian destinations in Japan and Korea.

But analysts say the airline's safety record is reason for concern as it has written off five planes since 1995 and had seven serious incidents over the past 20 years, four of which resulted in fatalities, according to data from Flightglobal Ascend, an industry consultancy.

The February 4 accident comes just seven months after another fatal crash which claimed the lives of 48 of the 58 people on board. The incident occurred in July 2014 when the pilots of an ATR 72-500 tried to land the aircraft at Penghu Island, off mainland China. "The accident can be attributed to pilot error of flying in extremely bad weather and trying to land when conditions were well beyond aircraft limit," said Ritchie.

Multiple plane crashes in Asia in the past one year have increased
air safety concerns in the region

It has also emerged that as of the end of December 2014, TransAsia had failed to meet around a third of the requirements the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) demanded as a result of the July crash. Moreover, Macau's Civil Aviation Authority said the engines of Flight GE235 had been replaced at Macau Airport in April last year "due to engine-related technical issues."

The CAA has grounded a total of 22 Taiwanese ATR planes for safety checks to inspect maintenance issues following the accident, and TransAsia has been banned from applying for new routes for one year.

'No trust, no ticket sales'

In view of this development, Hamburg-based independent aviation expert Heinrich Grossbongardt believes the latest incident could have a severe economic impact on the airline. "Without the trust of the people, no airline is able to sell tickets," he said. The analyst pointed out that Malaysia Airlines, for instance, is fighting for survival after two tragedies last year, despite the fact that the carrier and its management in both cases most likely only bear a minor part of the blame – if any.

TransAsia has had seven serious safety
incidents over the past 20 years

In the case of TransAsia, however, there are signs that pilot error has been a contributing factor in some accidents, which raises doubt about the safety culture and the operating procedures of the entire airline, Grossbongardt told DW.

Neil Hansford, chairman of Strategic Aviation Solutions, agrees: "There is a thing in the industry that you are only as good as your next crash." The Australian expert argues that in most countries this number of crashes would be terminal and the regulator would immediately stop any fleet additions and new routes and make the carrier downsize to a level where they can operate competently and safely with an ability to be profitable.

Nonetheless, analyst Tsang believes the economic impact will likely be limited. "Short-term bookings are expected to come under pressure, but given its prized routes out of a downtown airport in Taipei, TransAsia's bookings should rebound." This would be similar to what happened after the July 2014 crash which resulted in a sharp slump in revenue for about a month, but then passenger traffic rebounded again a month later.

According to Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific Chief Economist at the analytics firm IHS, TransAsia was helped by the popularity of its flight connections out of Songshan Airport, which is much closer and more accessible than Taipei's main Taoyuan international airport, which is 40 kilometers from downtown.

Moreover, the number of passengers using direct commercial flights between mainland China and Taiwan has risen sharply from five million in 2010 - the first full year of direct scheduled flights - to an estimated nine million in 2013. Negotiations are currently underway between China and Taiwan to allow mainland Chinese travelers to make transit stops in Taiwan on their way to other destinations.

Asia needs pilots

But many industry experts are concerned that the shortage of experienced pilots might jeopardize the safety of air travel in Asia. A number of accidents and incidents involving latest generation aircraft inside and outside the region (e.g. the Asiana crash in San Francisco) might be signs on the wall.

According to the latest Boeing study, the region needs 255,000 new pilots by 2033, which means some 20,000 every year. When an airline takes delivery of an additional jet it needs 14 pilots on average to operate the aircraft. But as Grossbongardt explains, the crew's level of experience is at least as important, especially in a region where severe weather is a frequent occurrence and navigation aids at smaller airports don't always have the highest standard.

In December, AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed
into the Java Sea, leaving 162 people dead

"The problem with experience is: it only builds with flight hours," said the analyst. Carriers which can afford it have started hiring pilots from Europe and the US. But this will not be a solution in the long run, because a pilot shortage is looming in these regions as well.

A downward trend in safety?

Aviation analyst Ritchie says the aviation industry is witnessing a downward trend in safety oversight. "This, I believe is a global phenomenon brought about to some extent by the introduction of self-auditing of the quality safety management of airlines, airports and maintenance organizations which are overseen by regulators who are neither skilled nor capable due to the increased aircraft operations to clearly maintain oversight of airport and airlines," he said.

The analyst argues that with the increased number of low cost carriers and the subsequent rise in flight operations over the past few years, there has also been a reduction of safety oversight and management awareness. "Too often economic and operational management imperatives impact safety decisions," Ritchie said.

Relatives of the victims pray during a Buddhist ritual near the wreckage of 

TransAsia Airways plane Flight GE235 after it crash landed into a river, in New

Taipei City, February 5, 2015. Reuters/River Wang 

Related Article:

TransAsia pilots tested after Taipei plane crash

Pilots Disabled Critical Computers Moments Before AirAsia Crash: Report

Jakarta Globe, Herdaru Purnomo, Kyunghee Park & Alan Levin, Jan 30, 2015

Indonesian police remove tarpaulin from part of the tail of the AirAsia QZ8501
 passenger plane in Kumai Port, near Pangkalan Bun, central Kalimantan Jan. 12,
2015. (Reuters Photo/Darren Whiteside)

The pilots of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 cut power to a critical computer system that normally prevents planes from going out of control shortly before it plunged into the Java Sea, two people with knowledge of the investigation said.

The action appears to have helped trigger the events of Dec. 28, when the Airbus A320 climbed so abruptly that it lost lift and it began falling with warnings blaring in the cockpit, the people said. All 162 aboard were killed.

The pilots had been attempting to deal with alerts about the flight augmentation computers, which control the A320’s rudder and also automatically prevent it from going too slow. After initial attempts to address the alerts, the flight crew cut power to the entire system, which is comprised of two separate computers that back up each other, the people said.

While the information helps show how a normally functioning A320’s flight-protection system could have been bypassed, it doesn’t explain why the pilots pulled the plane into a steep climb, the people said. Even with the computers shut off, the pilots should have been able to fly the plane manually, they said.

Airbus discourages pilots from cutting power to systems because electronics in the highly computerized aircraft are interconnected and turning off one component can affect others, John Cox, a former A320 pilot who is now a safety consultant, said in an interview.

“Particularly with an Airbus you don’t do that,” said Cox, chief executive of Washington-based industry consultant Safety Operating Systems.

Flight 8501 climbed more than 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) in less than 30 seconds, rising above the altitude where it was authorized to fly, Ertata Lananggalih, an investigator with Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee, said in Jakarta on Thursday.

The co-pilot, with 2,247 hours of flying experience, was at the controls and talking to controllers while the captain, who had 20,537 hours, was monitoring, said Mardjono Siswosuwarno, the lead investigator of the crash. The account was the first description of the last moments of the flight.

The investigators didn’t address whether pilots had cut power to the flight augmentation computer system and said they wouldn’t release more information on the case.

Airbus is barred from commenting on the accident under international investigation treaties, the company’s North American spokesman, Clay McConnell, said in an e-mail.

From a cruising altitude of 32,000 feet, the single-aisle A320 climbed to 37,400 feet as pilots probably tried to avoid bad weather, Ertata said. The aircraft then descended slowly for three minutes before it disappeared, he said.

“The pilots were conscious when the maneuver happened,” he said. “They were trying to control the airplane.”

Such an abrupt climb would almost certainly cause a rapid loss of speed and a “very pronounced stall,” Cox said.

The aircraft, operated by the Indonesian affiliate of Malaysia-based AirAsia, disappeared from radar en route to Singapore from Surabaya.

Indonesia won’t release a preliminary report on its investigation into Flight 8501 because fact-findings could change rapidly, Tatang Kurniadi, head of the commission, said Thursday. Indonesia sent the preliminary findings to all countries in the investigation on Jan. 28, Tatang said.

The pilots had sought permission from air traffic control to turn left and then climb to 38,000 feet because of storm clouds. Four minutes after the request, a controller cleared the pilots to climb to 34,000 feet, he said.

Satellite imagines showed storm clouds that reached as high as 44,000 feet, according to investigators.

The aircraft was in “good condition,” Mardjono said.

All Airbus models produced since the 1980s are designed to prevent pilot errors from causing crashes. The planes are controlled by multiple flight computers, which limit pilots from overly steep turns or getting too slow.

In the event of a malfunction or loss of power, the flight protections will shut down and leave the pilots to fly the plane manually. That appears to be what happened before Flight 8501 entered the steep climb and stalled, the two people said.

Investigators are still trying to determine why the pilots would cut power to the flight augmentation computers by pulling a circuit breaker in the cockpit.

Indonesian authorities have so far recovered at least 70 bodies. Investigators still haven’t managed to lift the jet’s fuselage. The tail section of the plane has been retrieved. Indonesia’s military pulled out of the search this week.

The cockpit-voice recorder captured the pilots’ voices and no explosion was heard, Nurcahyo Utomo, an investigator with the committee, said last week. The flight-data recorder captured 1,200 parameters and the voice-recorder captured the last two hours and four minutes of the flight, the investigators said. The two devices are called the black boxes. After studying data from the black boxes, authorities ruled out terrorism as a factor that brought down the plane.

Flight 8501 appeared to have stalled after climbing steeply, Minister of Transportation Ignasius Jonan said earlier this month. A stall occurs when airflow over the wings is disrupted or becomes too slow to provide lift and keep a plane aloft.

Indonesia has said it intends to shut the agency responsible for coordinating aircraft flight slots in three months. That’s after the AirAsia flight took off on a Sunday, without a Ministry of Transportation permit to fly that day.

The government has suspended the license of AirAsia for that route, found other airlines in breach of permits and removed officials involved from the ministry, AirNav Indonesia and state airport company Angkasa Pura 1.

AirAsia made an administrative error in flying QZ8501 on Sunday, Indonesia AirAsia chief executive Sunu Widyatmoko said Jan. 13. The carrier didn’t inform the Directorate of Air Aviation on the schedule revision, he told parliament in a hearing.

Bloomberg

Military Pulls Out of AirAsia 8501 Recovery Effort

Jakarta Globe, Jan 27, 2015

The Indonesian Military (TNI) said on Tuesday that it plans to end its participation
 in AirAsia Flight QZ8501 recovery operations, a day after its attempt to raise the
 downed plane’s fuselage from the bottom of the Java Sea failed. The civilian search
 and rescue agency (Basarnas) said it may continue its efforts, which will be limited
without the Navy’s help. (AFP Photo/Adek Berry)

Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan. Indonesia’s military on Tuesday halted search and recovery efforts for an AirAsia passenger jet that crashed last month killing all 162 people on board, navy officials said.

“The operation has been ongoing for 30 days so the joint team has been pulled out,” Rear Adm. Widodo, head of the navy’s western fleet, told reporters. “We apologize to the families of the victims. We tried our best to look for the missing victims.”

The Airbus A320-200 vanished from radar screens on Dec. 28, less than half way into a two-hour flight from Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors. Seventy bodies have been recovered.

The flight recorders have also been retrieved and are being analyzed. Days of rough weather and poor visibility have hampered navy divers’ efforts to find more bodies and recover the fuselage of the plane. Widodo said no more victims had been found by divers involved in the search for the past two days.

Since Saturday, salvage teams have been using giant inflatable bags to try to raise the fuselage of the Airbus A320-200, which is lying in the sea at a depth of around 30 meters. At one point, they managed to lift the main body to the surface for two minutes before a sling holding it snapped.

Video showing images of the fuselage dragging against the military recovery boat’s deck, then ripping and tumbling back to the bottom of the sea, raised concern among observers that vital clues about what caused the crash may have been destroyed in the failed attempt to raise the fuselage.

The civilian National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) said on Tuesday it may press on with the search for bodies. But its efforts will be hampered by the loss of the military’s large vessels and heavy recovery equipment.

“Perhaps we will do regular operations with help from fishermen and communities near the coast to find other victims,” said Tatang Zaenuddin, Basarnas’s deputy of operations. The agency will hold a news conference on Wednesday.

Imam Sampurno, who lost four family members on Flight QZ8501, none of whom has been found, said he was resigned to their fate. “We can only hope they will continue to search, but if it’s stopped there is nothing I can do about it. I am resigned to it,” he said.

Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) will submit its initial findings on the crash this week to the International Civil Aviation Organization. The preliminary report, which the ICAO requires within 30 days of an accident, will include “information on the plane, the number of passengers and other information like that,” NTSC investigator Suryanto said.

But it  will not include analysis from the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, both of which were recovered by divers from the bottom of the Java Sea.

Data from radar and the aircraft’s two “black box” flight recorders will provide investigators with a clearer picture of what occurred during the final minutes of the flight. But investigators say they have yet to start their analysis, as they have been compiling other data for the inquiry.

Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told a parliamentary hearing last week that, based on radar data, the plane had climbed faster than normal in its final minutes, and then stalled. Investigators have found no evidence of foul play.

The NTSC will hold an annual media conference this week on its work over the past year but it is not expected to discuss details of its investigation of the AirAsia crash, NTSC head Tatang Kurniadi said.  The final report on the crash, which will be made public, must be filed within a year.

Former Garuda Indonesia captain Shadrach M. Nababan, said that based on the crashed plane’s logbook data, the Airbus A320-200 serving AirAsia flight QZ8501 had experienced problems with its auto rudder trim limiter as many as nine times in 2014, as reported by Tempo.co. Three days before crashing on December 25, 2014, flight QZ8501 was forced to “return to apron” twice, according to Shadrach, although it is not clear if the reason for the plane’s forced return was related to rudder trim trouble.

Reuters & AFP

Divers Recover Six More Bodies From AirAsia Wreckage

Jakarta Globe, Suara Pembaruan & Agencies, 22, 2015

Indonesian rescuers recovered six more bodies from the wreckage of AirAsia
 Flight QZ8501 on Thursday. A total of 59 bodies have so far been recovered.
(Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)

Jakarta. Indonesian searchers on Thursday recovered six more bodies from the wreckage of the Indonesia AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea last month, killing all 162 people onboard.

Divers found the six victims, some of whom were still strapped into their seats, trapped under plane debris not far from the jet’s fuselage, authorities said.

“We have found six bodies, four of whom were females and two males, all adults,” said S.B. Supriyadi, an official from Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).

Identity cards, driving licenses and bank cards were found inside some of the victims’ pockets, Supriyadi said.

The victims were evacuated from the search site in the Karimata Strait to nearby Pangkalan Bun on Kalimantan for identification.

Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control midway through its flight from Surabaya to Singapore on Dec. 28. There were no survivors.

A total of 59 bodies have so far been recovered, as well as the plane’s two black boxes.

Indonesian military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Fuad Basya said searchers were aided by fine weather on Thursday, but accessing the plane’s fuselage — where more victims are believe to be trapped — is proving difficult.

One of eight mooring buoys installed to locate the main part of the Airbus A320 has been lost, Fuad said.

“Today the divers had been swimming around the location but could not find the plane’s body,” he said.

The cause of AirAsia‘s first fatal crash is not yet known, though investigators have ruled out foul play.

Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan on Tuesday told a parliamentary hearing that radar data showed the plane had climbed faster than normal in its final minutes, and then stalled.

AirAsia Jet’s Alarms ‘Screaming’ Before Crash: Investigator

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Jan 21, 2015

AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crashed in shallow waters with 162 people on board,
but so far just 53 bodies have been recovered. (AFP Photo/Juni Kriswanto)

Jakarta. Warning alarms in AirAsia Flight QZ8501 were “screaming” as the pilots desperately tried to stabilize the plane just before it plunged into the Java Sea last month, a crash investigator said on Wednesday.

The noise of several alarms — including one that indicated the plane was stalling — can be heard going off in recordings from the black box in the Airbus A320-200′s cockpit, the investigator told AFP, requesting anonymity.

“The warning alarms, we can say, were screaming, while in the background they [the pilot and co-pilot] were busy trying to recover,” the investigator said, adding the warnings were going off “for some time.”

The investigator, from Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), added that the pilots’ voices were drowned out by the sound of the alarms.

The revelation came a day after Indonesian Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan said that the plane had climbed abnormally fast before stalling and plunging into the sea, during a flight on Dec. 28 in stormy weather from Surabaya to Singapore.

“In the final minutes, the plane climbed at a speed which was beyond normal,” the minister told reporters.

The plane crashed in shallow waters with 162 people on board, but so far just 53 bodies have been recovered.

Divers have been struggling for a week against rough seas and strong currents to reach the plane’s main body, which was spotted on the seabed and is thought to contain the bulk of the remaining passengers and crew.

The two black boxes — the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder — were recovered last week after a lengthy search, and investigators are expected to complete a preliminary report next week.

As well as the cockpit voice recorder, the NTSC is examining a wealth of information in the flight data recorder, which monitors every major part of the plane.

They are focusing on the possibility of human or aircraft error, after ruling out terrorism following an analysis of the cockpit voice recorder.

Committee head Tatang Kurniadi said that the preliminary report into the crash would be completed on Tuesday, a month after the accident. He said the full report would not be released publicly but the media would be told some of its contents.

There was a huge international hunt for the crashed plane, involving ships from several countries including the US and China.

All but seven of those on board the flight were Indonesian. The foreign nationals were from South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France.

Agence France-Presse

AirAsia flight QZ8501: Plane climbed at speed 'beyond normal' then stalled, minister says

The Strait Times - AFP, Jan 20, 2015

A rescue team member walks near part of the fuselage of crashed AirAsia Flight
 QZ8501 inside a storage facility at Kumai port in Pangkalan Bun on Jan 19, 2015.
 An AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea last month with 162 people on board
 climbed at a speed that was "beyond normal" and then stalled, the Indonesian
transport minister said on Tuesday. -- Photo Reuters

JAKARTA (AFP) - An AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea last month with 162 people on board climbed faster than normal and then stalled, the Indonesian transport minister said Tuesday.

Flight QZ8501 went down on Dec 28 in stormy weather, during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

Indonesia’s meteorological agency has said bad weather may have caused the crash, and investigators are analysing the data from the jet’s black boxes before releasing a preliminary report.

Just moments before the plane disappeared off the radar, the pilot had asked to climb to avoid the storm. He was not immediately granted permission due to heavy air traffic.

“In the final minutes, the plane climbed at a speed which was beyond normal,” Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told reporters, citing radar data.

“The plane suddenly went up at a speed above the normal limit that it was able to climb to. Then it stalled.”

Earlier at a parliamentary hearing, he said radar data showed the Airbus A320-200 appeared at one point to be climbing at a rate of 1,800m (6,000ft) a minute before the crash.

There were several other planes in the area at the time.

“I think it is rare even for a fighter jet to be able to climb 6,000 feet per minute,” he said.

“For a commercial flight, climbing around 1,000 to 2,000 (feet) is maybe already considered extraordinary, because it is not meant to climb that fast.”

However, defence aviation experts said the minister’s statement was incorrect, adding that a fighter jet flying at an altitude of 10,000m is capable of climbing 10,000 feet per minute.

TERRORISM RULED OUT

The minister’s comments came after Indonesian investigators said they were focusing on the possibility of human error or problems with the plane having caused the crash, following an initial analysis of the cockpit voice recorder.

“We didn’t hear any other person, no explosion,” investigator Nurcahyo Utomo told reporters, explaining why terrorism had been ruled out.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Committee were now looking at the “possibility of plane damage and human factors", he said, without giving further details.

As well as the cockpit voice recorder, the committee is also examining a wealth of information in the flight data recorder, which monitors every major part of the plane.

A preliminary report will be released on Jan 28.

There was a huge international hunt for the crashed plane, involving ships from several countries including the US and China.

Indonesian search and rescue teams have so far recovered just 53 bodies from the sea.

But last week a Singapore navy ship located the jet’s main body, with the AirAsia motto “Now Everyone Can Fly” painted on the side.

Rescue teams hope they will be able to find many of the passengers and crew inside.

However, divers have not succeeded in reaching the fuselage despite several attempts due to bad weather, high waves and strong underwater currents.

All but seven of those on board the flight were Indonesian. The foreign nationals were from South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France.

AirAsia cockpit voice recorder found in crash wreckage

The cockpit voice recorder from the AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea has been located. The recorder, which has yet to be recovered, was found near where the flight data recorder was retrieved earlier.

Deutsche Welle, 12 Jan 2015

The cockpit voice recorder was located just hours after officials announced the data flight recorder had been pulled from beneath a piece of the aircraft's wing and brought to the surface. The voice recorder was 25 meters (80 feet) from where the data recorder was found.

It is a key development in helping investigators find out what caused the aircraft to crash into the Java Sea less than halfway into Flight 8501 on December 28, killing all 162 people on board.

Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi, operation coordinator at Indonesia's national search and rescue agency said on Monday the voice recorder was lodged beneath heavy wreckage, and divers were struggling to free it at a depth of 32 meters (105 feet).

The cockpit voice recorder was discovered
close to the location of the data recorder.

The flight data recorder was found in debris from the wing at a depth of about 30 meters (100 feet), according to Supriyadi. Once it was found, divers concentrated on locating the source of the other electronic ping heard a few meters away.

Once the voice recorder is recovered from the wreck, both boxes will be taken to Jakarta, the capital, for analysis. It could take up to two weeks to download their information, said Nurcahyo Utomo, an investigator at the National Committee for Safety Transportation.

The two instruments emit signals from their beacons and are vital to understanding what brought the flight down. They provide essential information including the plane's vertical and horizontal speeds along with engine temperature and final conversations between the captain and co-pilot.

The last contact the pilots had with air traffic control, about halfway into their two-hour journey from Indonesia's second-largest city, Surabaya, to Singapore, indicated they were entering stormy weather.

Th pilots asked to climb from 32,000 feet (9,753 meters) to 38,000 feet (11,582 meters) to avoid threatening clouds. Permission was denied because of heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the plane dropped off the radar. No distress signal was sent.

jm/bw (AP, dpa)

Military policemen carry the flight data recorder of AirAsia QZ8501 at the airbase in

 Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan Jan. 12, 2015. Indonesian navy divers on

Monday retrieved the black box flight data recorder from an AirAsia airliner that

crashed two weeks ago, killing all 162 people on board, a government official said.

Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control in bad weather on Dec. 28, less

than halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia’s second-biggest city of 

Surabaya to Singapore. (Reuters Photo/Darren Whiteside)

Related Article:

Divers in Indonesia recover AirAsia cockpit voice recorder

Navy Divers Find AirAsia Black Box: Transportation Ministry

Jakarta Globe & Agencies, Jan 11, 2015

The tail of the AirAsia QZ8501 passenger plane lies on the deck of the
 Indonesian Search and Rescue (Basarnas) ship Crest Onyx after it was
recovered at sea on Jan. 10, 2015. (Antara Photo/Prasetyo Utomo)

Jakarta. Indonesian divers on Sunday found the black box of the AirAsia plane which crashed in the Java Sea a fortnight ago with 162 people aboard, the transportation ministry said.

But they failed to retrieve it because it was stuck under debris from the main body of the plane, it added.

“The navy divers in Jadayat state boat have succeeded in finding a very important instrument, the black box of AirAsia QZ8501,” said Tonny Budiono, a senior ministry official.

Tonny said the black box’s coordinates were 03.37.21 South/109.42.42 East at a depth of 30 to 32 meters.

Divers will attempt to recover the flight data recorder tomorrow.

“Because of time constraints, [we] have decided to retrieve the black boxes tomorrow morning by gradually shifting these layers of aircraft body debris,” Tonny said.

But if that fails, Tonny said divers would lift the debris using inflatable balloons, the same technique used to lift the tail section on Saturday.

Navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir, however, denied that the black box had been found, saying divers could not confirm its exact location due to poor weather and visibility.

Earlier on Sunday three search vessels detected pings about five kilometers from where the tail of the Airbus A320-200 aircraft was raised on Saturday.

Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control during thundery weather on Dec. 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors.

Forty-eight bodies have been found in the Java Sea off Kalimantan.

If and when the recorders are found and taken to Jakarta, for analysis, it could take up to two weeks to download data, investigators said, although the information could be accessed in as little as two days if the devices are not badly damaged.

The aircraft carries cockpit voice and flight data recorders — or black boxes — near its tail but once the wreckage was visible, it quickly became apparent that the flight recorders were still underwater.

AirAsia tipped to surmount first major crisis

Yahoo – AFP, Satish Cheney, 11 Jan 2015

AirAsia passenger planes are seen parked on the tarmac of the low-cost carrier

 Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2), in Sepang, on January 10, 2015

(AFP Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

Until Flight QZ8501 went down everything had gone right during a spectacular 13-year run of success for AirAsia, which unlocked a booming market of budget travellers in the region.

But as long as no serious safety lapses emerge, analysts say the robust and media-savvy business built up by the Malaysia-based group should help overcome its first major reversal.

Passengers stand near an AirAsia

information board at the low-cost carrier

Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2

(KLIA2) in Sepang, on January 10,

2015 (AFP Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

Flight QZ8501 operated by Indonesia AirAsia -- the group's Jakarta-based affiliate -- crashed in the Java Sea on December 28 en route to Singapore from Surabaya with 162 aboard. All are believed dead.

From the start, AirAsia's colourful boss Tony Fernandes publicly took responsibility, visited victims' families, and vowed to find out what happened.

Such actions are critical in restoring trust, experts say, and stand in stark contrast to Malaysia Airlines' fumbling, tight-lipped handling of the still-unsolved disappearance of Flight MH370 last March with 239 aboard.

"This is an excellent case of a crisis being handled well, to show your customers that things are being taken care of in a hands-on manner, and that the executives are not just sipping their coffees in a cosy office," said Daniel Tsang, an aerospace analyst with Aspire Aviation.

"While some passengers may avoid taking (AirAsia) flights in the short-term, AirAsia's low-cost proposition will keep drawing in first-time fliers to the airline."

If investigators uncover safety negligence on the airline's part, however, it could deeply undermine confidence.

The cause is not yet known, but the plane's Indonesian pilot had requested a course change from air traffic controllers shortly before the crash to avoid a storm.

Indonesian officials in turn have raised questions about Indonesia AirAsia, saying it did not have a license to fly the route that day, but Fernandes has rejected the claim.

AirAsia advertisements are seen at the

 low-cost carrier Kuala Lumpur International 

Airport 2 (KLIA2) in Sepang, on January

10, 2015 (AFP Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

'Everyone can fly'

Yet even if any safety lapses are pinned on the carrier, aviation analysts said AirAsia could mitigate the impact with an aggressive and public campaign to address shortcomings.

AirAsia would need to "be upfront about safety lapses, own up to error, lay out ways to avoid future (accidents), and move on", said Terence Fan, an aviation expert at Singapore Management University.

"Unless serious lapses at the airline were found, an airline typically bounces back in a few months in terms of traffic."

Taking to Twitter, Fernandes last week vowed all the facts will come out. "We never hide," he declared.

Shukor Yusof, founder of Malaysia-based aviation research firm Endau Analytics, said he would be surprised if a systemic AirAsia safety problem was found.

"AirAsia does well in cost-cutting but not to the extent of foregoing safety," he said.

Knowing the plane's fate also means AirAsia can bring closure to families, so muting long-term criticism. In contrast, the failure to find MH370 has left many victims' kin alleging a cover-up by Malaysia Airlines and Malaysia's government.

AirAsia Group CEO, Tony Fernandes,

 pictured ahead of a press conference at

 Juanda International Airport in Surabaya,

 on December 29, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Manan Vatsyayana)

A former record industry executive, Fernandes, 50, took over heavily indebted AirAsia in December 2001. He turned it into a roaring success with its rock-bottom fares and a playful image embodied by its baseball cap-wearing boss, who has been called Asia's Richard Branson.

With its corporate motto declaring "Now everyone can fly", it has won over tens of millions of travellers in a burgeoning Asian middle class previously confined to more expensive regional flag carriers, snagging several awards as the world's best budget carrier.

"Certainly AirAsia will recover as it is a very good airline and this tragedy will not impact its growth," said AirlineRatings.com editor Geoffrey Thomas.

That said, AirAsia is struggling to maintain growth rates as it matures, as rivals step up competition. In the first blow to its business, Indonesian authorities have halted AirAsia's Surabaya-Singapore flights.

But analysts note that AirAsia has continually proven itself the region's most nimble performer, and that other airlines have bounced back from tragedy to emerge stronger. These include flag carriers Garuda Indonesia and Korean Airlines.