AirAsia plane with 162 on board missing en route to Singapore

[GarvenDreis]

Operation to lift AirAsia QZ8501 from seabed fails as rope snaps

Indonesian rescuers fail for second time to lift fuselage of crashed AirAsia QZ8501 from bottom of Java Sea

Indonesian rescuers unload the body of a victim of crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501 from a Navy helicopter as it arrives at Iskandar military airbase on January 23rd Photo: EPA/ARIO TANOTO

AP
4:21PM GMT 26 Jan 2015

The second attempt to lift the fuselage of the crashed AirAsia jetliner failed Sunday as the wreckage sank back to the ocean floor when a rope linking the lifting balloons broke.

Navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir said strong current was the main obstacle. The rope had been fastened and linked to a ship, but broke again as the fuselage was lifted.

"We could not fight against nature," Simorangkir said. "We just hope the weather would change and be conducive."

The attempt on Saturday failed because lifting balloons deflated. Divers reached the fuselage for the first time on Friday. Most of the victims are believed to be inside.

Simorangkir said rescuers retrieved one body on Sunday that floated as the fuselage was being raised.

A total of 70 bodies have been discovered from Flight 8501, which crashed Dec. 28 with 162 people on board while flying from Indonesia's second-largest city of Surabaya, to Singapore.

Dozens of navy divers have been fighting strong current and poor visibility while trying to lift the fuselage from 100-feet-deep waters in the Java Sea. The cockpit has been located about 500 yards away, and the bodies of the pilot and co-pilot are believed to be there.

Bad weather is a suspected factor in the crash. The pilots asked for permission to climb to a higher altitude, but air traffic controllers couldn't allow it because of heavy air traffic. The flight disappeared soon afterward.

Transportation authorities have ruled out sabotage and say a preliminary accident report is expected to be submitted to the International Civil Aviation Organization this coming week.

 

[GarvenDreis]

AirAsia probe looks at possible computer glitch, crew response

Date January 27, 2015 - 9:19PM
Siva Govindasamy and Tim Hepher
Reuters

Foreign investigators examine the tail of the AirAsia flight QZ8501 in Kuma. Photo: AFP

Investigators probing the crash of an AirAsia jetliner are examining maintenance records of a key part of its automated control systems, and how the pilots may have handled the plane if it failed, two people familiar with the matter said.

An outage of the twin Flight Augmentation Computers could not have directly caused the December 28 crash, experts say, but without them the pilots would have had to rely on manual flying skills that are often stretched during a sudden airborne emergency.

"There appears to be some issue with the FAC," a person familiar with the investigation said, adding that more information was being sought from the manufacturer and airline.

Indonesia has said the Airbus A320 jet climbed abruptly from its cruising height and then stalled, or lost lift, before plunging out of control into the Java Sea, killing all 162 people on board.

A second person familiar with the probe said investigators were looking at how the pilots dealt with the chain of events leading up to the crash. Neither person agreed to be identified, because details of the investigation remain confidential.

The pair of computers comprising the A320's FAC system is mainly responsible for controlling rudder movements and helping to keep the airplane stable, as well detecting windshear, or sudden changes in wind speed or direction.

Indonesian magazine Tempo reported a series of maintenance problems with the computerised rudder system of that particular aircraft in the days and months before the loss of Flight QZ8501.

Pictures of wreckage retrieved from the Java Sea provide little evidence that the crash was caused by problems with the rudder.

But, after partially analysing data from the "black box" voice and flight data recorders, investigators have extended their interest to the FAC computers, the two people familiar with the probe said.

A problem with the system may help explain another key element of the crash - why the jet did not automatically correct itself before entering into a stall, even if accidentally encouraged to do so by crew.

Manual control

Airbus jets are designed to provide "flight envelope protection", making it virtually impossible to push them outside safe design limits when operating in normal flying mode.

But when the computers are unable to perform their tasks, control is automatically handed to the pilots who must fall back on training and fly manually, in so-called "alternate" mode.

A failure of both FAC computers - one primary, the other back-up - is one of those rare circumstances that can cause the usual stall protection to trip.

That alone would not explain why such a jet might crash and it is unlikely to be the only scenario being considered by investigators.

It was not clear when any fault might have developed, but it would, if confirmed, be one possible explanation of how the plane got into the state where the Indonesian pilot and French first officer would need to take over and display skill under stress.

"Stall protection can trip in very exceptional circumstances and the pilots need to react to that," an A320 pilot said, asking not to be named since he is not allowed to talk to media.

Airbus said it would not comment on the investigation or the crashed jet, but stressed that this type of aircraft is designed to be flown manually even when the safety buffer is not available.

"The aircraft remains fully controllable if you lose the two FACs," an Airbus spokesman said by email.

"The consequence of losing the two FACs is that the pilot has to fly manually like a conventional aircraft, which by definition has no flight envelope protection."

Preliminary report due

Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee declined to comment. The agency will submit its preliminary report to the International Civil Aviation Organisation later this week, but said on Tuesday it would not include an analysis of the data from the black boxes.

AirAsia, referring to the jet by its 5-letter registration, said it could not comment on the aircraft or the investigation.

"We are unable to comment on technical matters related to PK-AXC at this time as we would like to avoid adding to speculation while the investigation by the NTSC is still ongoing," an AirAsia spokeswoman said by email.

In October, airlines were given four years to upgrade FACs on A320 jets at the next repair after a design review. An emergency European safety directive in December instructed crew how to disable computerised flight protections themselves but only in extremely rare circumstances.

There is no indication Airbus or regulators have identified anything that would raise wider concerns about the safety of the 6,100 A320-family aircraft in operation.

Under aviation rules, Airbus must notify operators worldwide if it discovers anything that could affect the safety of the whole fleet and it has not so far done so.

But investigators will want to examine what caused the plane to slip out of its usual safely cocooned flying mode, how it entered a stall and what actions the crew took in response.

Some pilot unions, including those at Air France after an A330 jet crashed in the Atlantic in 2009, have argued in the past that Airbus systems are so complex that pilots can be overwhelmed when things go wrong. The jetmaker denies this.

 

[GarvenDreis]

AirAsia QZ8501: Nearly 100 victims still missing as fuselage recovery abandoned

Indonesian military calls off AirAsia wreckage recovery after saying badly damaged fuselage was too difficult to lift and no more bodies had been located

A section of the Air Asia Airbus 320 arrives on a salvage ship at Kumal port, Borneo Photo: Achmad Ibrahim/AP

By Andrew Marszal, and AFP
11:12AM GMT 27 Jan 2015

Efforts to recover the wreckage of AirAsia QZ8501 have been called off after failing to find any more bodies inside the fuselage, despite 92 victims still being unaccounted for.

The Indonesian navy said the fuselage of the jet, which crashed into the Java Sea last month, was too badly damaged to lift, and that no more bodies had been located.

Salvage teams had been using giant inflatable bags to try to raise the fuselage, but the fuselage split in two and sank to the seabed on Sunday after a sling holding it snapped during a lifting operation.

"All of our forces are being pulled out," said Rear Admiral Widodo, a navy official overseeing the search and rescue operation. "We apologise to the families of the victims."

So far just 70 bodies have been recovered, and the national search and rescue agency said it would try to find more victims in smaller-scale operations.

Flight QZ8501 went down on December 28 in stormy weather with 162 people on board, during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

Search and rescue teams failed repeatedly in recent days to lift the main body of the Airbus A320-200, which is lying in the sea at a depth of around 98 feet, where officials had hoped to find the majority of the victims.

"We will continue to try fulfil the hopes of the victims' relatives, but the operation will not be a large-scale one," said Bambang Soelistyo, head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency.

Military spokesman Fuad Basya said that the plane's body was "destroyed".

"It was soaked in seawater for a while so when we lifted it it was torn apart," he said. "We can no longer find any more bodies."

There was a huge international hunt for the AirAsia jet, involving ships from countries including the United States and China. But following the discovery of the fuselage by a Singaporean vessel, most foreign assistance was pulled out.

The jet's black boxes – the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder – have been recovered, and investigators are analysing them. A preliminary report into the accident should be completed this week.

Indonesian transport minister Ignasius Jonan said last week that the plane climbed abnormally fast before stalling and plunging into the sea.

One crash investigator described how the plane's warning alarms were "screaming" in the moments before the crash as the pilots desperately sought to stabilise the aircraft.

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

Indonesia's meteorological agency has said weather could have caused the accident, but only the black boxes will be able to give definitive answers.

 

[GarvenDreis]

Hunt for AirAsia crash victims to resume without Indonesian military

Date January 28, 2015 - 3:54PM
Jewel Topsfield
Fairfax foreign correspondent

A crew member of an Indonesian Air Force Super Puma helicopter looks out a window during a search operation for the crashed AirAsia Flight 8501 over the Java Sea.

The hunt for the remaining 92 victims of the AirAsia crash will resume on Saturday despite the Indonesian military withdrawing from the search.

The head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, Bambang Soelistyo, said divers would rest for a couple of days before the search continued at the weekend.

The agency, known as Basarnas, would decide whether to call off the search seven days after it resumed on Saturday.

Indonesian rescue personnel unload a coffin bearing a body recovered from the underwater wreckage of ill-fated AirAsia flight QZ8501 from a military plane on arrival at Surabaya earlier this month. Photo: AFP

Mr Soelistyo said the focus would be to find the remaining bodies rather than the fuselage of the plane.

AirAsia flight 8501 plummeted into the Java Sea on December 28, less than an hour into a flight from Surabaya - Indonesia's second largest city - to Singapore.

All 162 passengers and crew were killed in the aviation disaster, which is believed to have been caused by turbulent weather.

Seventy bodies and the flight data and voice recorders - known as black boxes - have been recovered from the wreckage.

The decision by the military to withdraw from the search means the fuselage of the plane, which rescuers have unsuccessfully attempted to lift from the ocean bed, is likely to remain on the ocean floor.

With Karuni Rompies

 

[GarvenDreis]

Hopes fade of finding more victims from the AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crash

Date January 29, 2015 - 4:31AM

Relatives of missing AirAsia passengers grieve in Indonesia. Photo: AFP

Jakarta: Indonesia's search and rescue agency say 92 victims still missing after an AirAsia plane crash could have been swept away or be lost on the seabed after no more bodies were found in the jet's fuselage.

Flight QZ8501 went down in the Java Sea on December 28 in stormy weather with 162 people on board, during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

So far just 70 bodies have been recovered.

Authorities had hoped that the majority of the passengers and crew would be in the plane's main section, but after several days searching the fuselage, they said no more bodies could be located.

"They could be on the seabed, or have been swept away by waves and currents," said S.B. Supriyadi, a search and rescue agency official who has been co-ordinating the hunt.

The military, which has provided the bulk of personnel and equipment for the operation, withdrew from the search on Tuesday due to the failure to find more victims, and after several failed attempts to lift the damaged fuselage.

The civilian search and rescue agency has said it will push on with the hunt for at least a week, with three aircraft, several ships, and divers.

While Supriyadi suggested it would be tough to find any more victims, agency chief Bambang Soelistyo said he was "optimistic".

He added that search and rescue teams were being given two days' break and would push on with the hunt afterwards.

The agency said that the main aim of the operation is to find more bodies not to lift the plane's fuselage, which has split in two.

However, analysts have reacted with surprise to the suggestion that the rest of the wreckage might be left on the seabed, as retrieving it would help with the investigation into the crash.

The jet's black boxes - the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder - have been recovered, and investigators are analysing them.

A preliminary report into the accident is being completed this week.

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

AFP

 

[GarvenDreis]

One more victim of AirAsia QZ8501 identified

Rabu, 28 Januari 2015 20:54 WIB

Photo document of the investigation team observed the tail AirAsia QZ8501. (ANTARA/Prasetyo Utomo)

Surabaya (ANTARA News) - The Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team identified the body of an AirAsia QZ8501 passenger on Wednesday.

Head of the DVI team Senior Commissioner Budiyono said here on Wednesday that the body of the victim, which was labeled B053, was identified as Marianne Claudia Ardhi, an 11-year-old female who was a resident of Surabaya, East Java province.

The body was identified by matching primary data with the victims DNA.

The team also used footage from CCTV cameras to identify characteristics of the victim, including what clothes she was wearing during the flight.

According to flight data, Ardhi had boarded the ill-fated aircraft with all members of her family, who are still missing.

She was heading to Singapore from Surabaya with her father Reggy Ardhi, mother Caroline Harwon Lioe, and two siblings, Michele Clemency Ardhi and Jayden Cruze Ardhi.

The DVI team collected the victims DNA by taking samples from unwashed clothes from her home as her family members have yet to be found.

So far, 32 days since AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed, as many as 56 bodies of passengers have been identified, while DVI team is still in the process of identifying the bodies of 14 others.

The AirAsia Airbus A320-200 carrying 162 people had gone missing on the morning of December 28 after losing contact with air traffic control on its way from Surabaya, East Java, to Singapore.

Flight QZ8501 lost contact after the pilot sought permission to climb to 38 thousand feet from 32 thousand feet to avoid stormy weather over the sea between Bangka Belitung and West Kalimantan.

The aircraft carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members took off from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya at 5:36 a.m. local time and lost contact with the Jakarta air traffic control at 6:17 a.m. local time.

The plane, piloted by Captain Iriyanto and First Officer (FO) Remi Emmanuel Plesel, was scheduled to arrive in Singapore at 8:30 a.m. local time.

Seven foreigners were among the passengers of the missing jet. The foreign nationals comprised three Koreans, a Singaporean, a Briton, a Malaysian, and the French FO.

***4***

Reporting by Abdul Malik Ibrahim

 

[GarvenDreis]

French co-pilot Remi Plesel was at controls of doomed AirAsia jet QZ8501

PUBLISHED : Friday, 30 January, 2015, 3:19am
UPDATED : Friday, 30 January, 2015, 3:19am

Reuters in Jakarta

Co-pilot Remi Plesel in front of an AirAsia plane. Photo: AFP

The French co-pilot of an AirAsia passenger jet that crashed last month was at the controls just prior to the accident, Indonesia's lead investigator said yesterday.

Data from the black box flight data recorder has provided the accident probe with a "pretty clear picture" of what happened in the last moments of AirAsia Flight QZ8501, but officials offered few details.

The Airbus A320 vanished from radar screens in bad weather on December 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore. All 162 people on board were killed.

"The second-in-command, popularly known as the co-pilot, who usually sits to the right of the cockpit. At the time, he was flying the plane," said head National Transport Safety Committee (NTSC) investigator Mardjono Siswosuwarno, referring to first officer Remi Plesel.

"The captain, sitting to the left, was the pilot monitoring."

Captain Iriyanto, 53, was believed to have taken over control of the aircraft from Plesel when it started to ascend and then descend sharply, officials said.

The cause of AirAsia's first fatal crash was still unknown. Investigators said the cockpit voice and flight data recorders showed that the plane had been cruising at a stable altitude before the accident. The aircraft was in sound condition when it took off, and all crew members were properly certified, they said.

"The plane was flying before the incident within the limits of its weight and balance envelope," Mardjono said. "While the flight crew had valid licences and medical certificates."

Indonesia has previously said the aircraft climbed abruptly from its cruising height and then stalled, or lost lift, before plunging out of control into the sea.

NTSC chief Tatang Kurniadi said Indonesia submitted its preliminary report on the crash to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on Wednesday. The report, which has not been made public, was purely factual and contained no analysis, he said, adding that the full, final report would take at least six to seven months to complete.

On Wednesday Indonesia said the search for dozens of victims still unaccounted for could end within days if no more bodies were found. A multinational operation has found 70 bodies in the Java Sea and had hoped to find more after finding the fuselage. But days of rough weather hampered navy divers' efforts.

 

[GarvenDreis]

AirAsia disaster: pilots disabled computers moments before crash

Date January 30, 2015 - 10:13AM
Herdaru Purnomo

Jakarta: The pilots of AirAsia flight 8501 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 December 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.
Wreckage from AirAsia flight 8501.

Wreckage from AirAsia flight 8501. Photo: AFP

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

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 computerised aircraft are interconnected and turning off one component can effect others, John Cox, a former A320 pilot who is now a safety consultant, said in an interview.

Head of Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee Tatang Kurniadi shows the recovered Cockpit Voice Recorder. Photo: AP

"Particularly with an Airbus you don't do that," said Mr Cox, chief executive officer of Washington-based industry consultant Safety Operating Systems.

Flight 8501 climbed more than 1,524 metres in less than 30 seconds, rising above the altitude where it was authorised to fly, Ertata Lananggalih, an investigator with Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee, said in Jakarta on Thursday.

The co-pilot, with 2247 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.

Wreckage of part of the ill-fated AirAsia Flight 8501 that crashed in the Java Sea, at Kumai port in Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia. Photo: AP

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.

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, Mr Lananggalih said. The aircraft then descended slowly for three minutes before it disappeared, he said.

"The pilots were conscious when the manoeuvre 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," Mr 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 on Thursday. Indonesia sent the preliminary findings to all countries in the investigation on January 28, Mr Kurniadi 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.

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 1200 parameters and the voice-recorder captured the last two hours and four minutes of the flight, the investigators said. After studying data from the black boxes, authorities ruled out terrorism as a factor that brought down the plane.

Bloomberg

 

[GarvenDreis]

AirAsia QZ8501 pilots cut power to airplane's 'safety' computer system before crash

Twin system designed to prevent human error may have been turned off when flight QZ8501 got into difficulty, causing loss of control

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 31 January, 2015, 5:15am
UPDATED : Saturday, 31 January, 2015, 11:53am

Bloomberg

The recovery process of the flight data recorder is shown during the press conference of preliminary accident report of AirAsia QZ8501. Photo: Xinhua

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 development comes as France opened a formal criminal investigation after it was found the French co-pilot was at the controls.

The action appears to have helped trigger the events of December 28, when the Airbus climbed so abruptly it lost lift and it began falling with warnings blaring in the cockpit, the two said. All 162 aboard were killed and only 72 bodies have so far been recovered.

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 sources 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 two 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-computerised aircraft are interconnected and turning off one can affect others, said John Cox, a former A320 pilot now a safety consultant. "Particularly with an Airbus you don't do that," said Cox, chief executive of Washington-based industry consultant Safety Operating Systems.

Flight QZ8501 climbed more than 1,524 metres in less than 30 seconds, rising above the altitude where it was authorised to fly, Ertata Lananggalih, an investigator with Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee, said in Jakarta on Thursday.

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

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.

Meanwhile, a judge in France will investigate possible “manslaughter” in connection with the crash.

Plesel’s family in France separately filed charges against AirAsia Indonesia for “endangering the life of others” as the airline did not have permission to carry out the flight between Surabaya and Singapore on the day of the crash.

“Remi Plesel’s family are delighted at this criminal investigation which, we hope, will reveal the truth,” said their lawyer Eddy Arneton. “It will allow us to finally ask the right questions.”

Airbus is barred from commenting on the accident under international investigation treaties, the company's North American spokesman, Clay McConnell, said.

From a cruising altitude of 9,750 metres, the A320 climbed to 11,400 metres as pilots probably tried to avoid bad weather, Lananggalih said. The aircraft then descended slowly for three minutes and disappeared, he said.

"The pilots were conscious when the manoeuvre 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's AirAsia, disappeared en route to Singapore from Surabaya.

Indonesia won't release a preliminary report on its investigation into flight QZ8501 because fact-findings could change rapidly, Tatang Kurniadi, head of the commission, said on Thursday. Indonesia sent the preliminary findings to all countries in the investigation on January 28, Kurniadi 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 clouds that reached 13,400 metres, according to investigators.

The aircraft was in "good condition", Siswosuwarno 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 flying 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 QZ8501 entered the steep climb and stalled, the two said.

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

Indonesian authorities have so far recovered at least 70 bodies. The country's military pulled out of the search this week.

With additional reporting from Agence France-Presse

 

[GarvenDreis]

AirAsia captain 'left his seat' before fatal crash in Java Sea, say investigation sources

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 31 January, 2015, 4:49pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 31 January, 2015, 5:08pm

Reuters

The co-pilot of AirAsia flight QZ8501, Remi Emmanuel Plesel, was at the controls when the crash happened, according to sources close to the investigation. Photo: AFP

The captain of the AirAsia jet that crashed into the sea in December was out of his seat conducting an unorthodox procedure when his co-pilot apparently lost control.

And by the time he returned it was too late to save the plane, two people familiar with the investigation said.

It was unclear what "unorthodox procedure" he was performing, but experts have said the captain may have decided to cut off a key computer system on the airplane, which would require the pilots looking to reset it to press a button on the overhead panel.

To pull the circuit breaker, the captain had to rise from his seat, the experts said.

Details emerging of the final moments of Flight QZ8501 are likely to focus attention partly on maintenance, procedures and training, though Indonesian officials have stressed publicly that it is too early to draw any firm conclusions.

The Airbus A320 jet plunged into the Java Sea while en route from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore on December 28, killing all 162 people on board.

It had been suffering maintenance faults with a key flight control computer for over a week, and one person familiar with the matter said the captain had flown on the same plane with the intermittently faulty device just days before the crash.

AirAsia said it would not comment while the matter was under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) of Indonesia.

Captain Iriyanto, the more experienced of the two, was performing an 'unorthodox operation' before the crash, sources say.

Maintenance problems on the Flight Augmentation Computer (FAC), and the way the pilots reacted to them, were at the heart of the investigation, Reuters reported.

After trying to reset this device, pilots pulled a circuit-breaker to cut its power, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.

People familiar with the matter told Reuters it was the Indonesian captain Iriyanto who took this step, rather than his less experienced French co-pilot Remy Plesel, who was flying the airplane.

The outage would not directly upset the aircraft but would remove flight envelope protection, which prevents a pilot from taking a plane beyond its safety limits, leaving the junior pilot to fly the jet manually in delicate high altitude conditions.

The circuit breakers are on a wall panel immediately behind the co-pilot and hard or impossible to reach from the seated position on the left side, where the captain sits, according to two experienced pilots and published diagrams of the cockpit.

“You can reset the FAC, but to cut all power to it is very unusual,” said one A320 pilot, who declined to be identified. “You don’t pull the circuit breaker unless it was an absolute emergency. I don’t know if there was one in this case, but it is very unusual.”

Shortly afterwards the junior pilot pulled the plane into a sharp climb from which investigators have said it stalled or lost lift.

“It appears he was surprised or startled by this,” said a person familiar with the investigation, referring to the decision to cut power to the affected computer.

Members of an Indonesian rescue team carry a coffin with the remains of a victim of the AirAsia flight QZ8501 which was recovered last night. All 162 people onboard died. Photo: AFP

The captain eventually resumed control, but a person familiar with the matter said he was not in a position to intervene immediately to recover the aircraft from its upset.

Data already published on the plane’s trajectory suggest it may have been difficult for someone to move around the cockpit in an upward-tilting and by then possibly unstable aircraft, but there is so far no confirmation of the cockpit movements.

“The co-pilot pulled the plane up, and by the time the captain regained the controls it was too late,” one of the people familiar with the investigation said.

Tatang Kurniadi, chief of Indonesia’s NTSC, told Reuters there had been no delay in the captain resuming control but declined further comment.

Airbus declined to comment.

Lawyers for the family of the French co-pilot say they have filed a lawsuit against AirAsia in Paris for “endangering the lives of others” by flying the route without official authorisation on that day. Investigators have said the accident was not related to the permit issue.

AirAsia did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.

Although more is becoming known about the chain of events, people familiar with the investigation warned against making assumptions on the accident’s cause, which needed more analysis.

Safety experts say air crashes are most often caused by a chain of events, each of which is necessary but not sufficient to explain the underlying causes of the accident.

 

[GarvenDreis]

French judge to investigate AirAsia crash after French co-pilot 'was in control'

The formal criminal investigation will consider the possibility of 'manslaughter' into the crash of an AirAsia plane in the Java Sea last month

Co-pilot of AirAsia flight QZ8501, Remi Emmanuel Plesel Photo: AFP/Getty

By AFP
9:43PM GMT 30 Jan 2015

France has opened a formal criminal investigation into the crash of an AirAsia plane in the Java Sea last month while a French co-pilot was at the controls, a judicial source said on Friday.

A judge will investigate possible "manslaughter" in connection with the crash that killed all 162 people on board.

Flight QZ8501 went down in stormy weather on December 28 in the Java Sea during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. Only 72 bodies have so far been recovered.

On Thursday, Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee, which has been analysing the plane's black boxes, said that prior to the crash, the aircraft had climbed fast in an area packed with huge storm clouds, and the stall alarms started going off.

They also revealed that the Airbus A320-200's less experienced French co-pilot, Remi Plesel, was flying the plane before it went down, rather than Captain Iriyanto, a former fighter pilot who had around 20,000 hours of flying time.

Plesel's family in France separately filed charges against AirAsia Indonesia for "endangering the life of others" as the airline did not have permission to carry out the flight between Surabaya and Singapore on the day of the crash.

Indonesian rescue personnel work to recover the victims and wreckage of AirAsia Flight QZ8501

"Remi Plesel's family are delighted at this criminal investigation which, we hope, will reveal the truth," said their lawyer Eddy Arneton.

"It will allow us to finally ask the right questions."

 

[GarvenDreis]

A French judicial source said on Friday that France has opened a formal criminal investigation into the crash of the AirAsia plane while a French co-pilot was at the controls. A judge will investigate a possible charge of “manslaughter” in connection with the crash.

 

[GarvenDreis]

AirAsia crash searchers may have found French co-pilot after body 'wearing uniform' is retrieved

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 07 February, 2015, 2:44pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 07 February, 2015, 3:37pm

Agence France-Presse in Jakarta

Remi Plesel was said to be flying the plane when it disaster struck. Photo: AFP

Indonesian divers have found a body believed to be the French co-pilot who was steering an AirAsia plane when it crashed in December with 162 people onboard, an official said today.

SB Supriyadi. coordinator of the search and rescue effort, said the body was retrieved from the front part of the fuselage during a search operation on Friday.

“It is likely the body of the French co-pilot, wearing uniform with three stripes on [the] shoulder,” he told AFP, adding that the body is still being held onboard the Pacitan warship before being taken to land.

A formal confirmation will be given after the Disaster Victims Identification (DVI) team finish identifying the body, which is in poor condition, Supriyadi said.

Indonesian investigators last month said French co-pilot Remi Plesel was flying the plane before it crashed, rather than Captain Iriyanto, an experienced former fighter pilot.

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

Another three bodies were found near the fuselage today, after three bodies were found yesterday.

This brings the total number of dead retrieved to 101, Supriyadi said.

Rescue services are still trying to lift the fuselage from the seabed using giant inflatable bags after earlier attempts failed.

 

[GarvenDreis]

AirAsia pilot found still strapped in seat

Date February 7, 2015 - 6:46PM

Indonesian divers have retrieved the body of one of the pilots of the AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea in December with 162 people on board.

The body was found in the cockpit still strapped to the seat, but it was not clear if it was that of the Indonesian captain or the French co-pilot, search operation chief Bambang Sulistyo said.

He said divers would try on Saturday to retrieve the body of the second pilot, believed to be still in the cockpit.

A total of 93 bodies have been found so far, he said.

AirAsia Indonesia Flight QZ8501 was en route from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore when it crashed into the sea on December 28.

Investigators said last month the plane was being flown by the co-pilot when it went down.

They said the plane climbed abnormally from 32,000 feet to 37,000 feet in just 30 seconds causing an aerodynamic stall before crashing.

The normal climb rate is 1,000-2,000 feet per minute.

DPA

 

[GarvenDreis]

AirAsia boss seeks to allay fears as flight aborted after malfunction

PUBLISHED : Monday, 09 February, 2015, 12:18am
UPDATED : Monday, 09 February, 2015, 5:13am

Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur

Travellers wait at AirAsia sales counter. Photo: AP

A system malfunction forced the pilots of an AirAsia X flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jeddah to abort the flight and return to Malaysia on Sunday, the AirAsia Group's CEO said.

The incident sparked fresh questions on social media about the Malaysian airline group's safety record as it struggles with the aftermath of the loss of Flight QZ8501 in late December with 162 people on board. "One auto-thrust not functioning properly. Actually okay to fly but we just returning it to base," Tony Fernandes said in a text message, calling it a "minor issue".

Auto-thrusters are systems that ensure a plane continues to travel at a steady speed.

Fernandes confirmed the Airbus A330 - operated by the long-haul arm of the AirAsia Group of carriers, AirAsia X - landed safely at Kuala Lumpur's international airport.

Flight-tracking websites indicated AirAsia X Flight D7172 flew several wide circles over the Strait of Malacca to burn off fuel.

Fernandes called the manoeuvre a "routine" precaution as the plane was heavily laden with fuel that normally would have been used up during the several-hour flight to the Saudi Arabian city.

"Just burning off fuel as has lots of fuel as was going to Jeddah," he said.

AirAsia said the passengers were later put on another plane.

"As a safety precaution, and in full compliance with all international security and safety standards, the aircraft made a turn back," it said.

Although QZ8501 was the AirAsia group's first deadly accident, it followed two deadly Malaysia Airlines incidents last year that killed more than 500 people and raised concerns among many travellers about the safety of the country's carriers.

"What is happening with Malaysia and airplanes? This is really, really scary," posted one Twitter user.

 

[GarvenDreis]

Divers pull out more bodies after AirAsia jet crash, bringing total to 100

By Faith Karimi and Masrur Jamaluddin, CNN
Updated 1016 GMT (1816 HKT) February 8, 2015

Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) Indonesian crews pulled out more bodies following last year's crash of an AirAsia jet, raising the total to 100 so far, authorities said Sunday.

Of the 100 bodies recovered, 72 have been identified, police said. Efforts are underway to identify the remaining victims.

AirAsia Flight 8501 plunged into the sea on December 28 as it flew from the Indonesian city of Surabaya toward Singapore. It had 162 people on board.

Divers resumed their attempt to lift up the fuselage of the Airbus jet on Sunday after earlier attempts failed.

Before the plane crashed, the co-pilot was flying the jet as the more experienced pilot monitored the flight.

Things may have gone wrong in a span of three minutes and 20 seconds, triggering a stall warning that sounded until it crashed into the Java Sea, according to Indonesia's transportation officials.

Though it's common for the co-pilot to be in control of the aircraft, significant questions remain. Why did the plane start a sudden, steep ascent? Was bad weather a factor?

Plane was in good condition

The plane was in good condition and the entire crew was certified, said Mardjono Siswosuwarno, the chief investigator for the transportation committee.

The flight took off and cruised at 32,000 feet amid stormy weather. The pilot then asked the control tower whether the plane could ascend to 38,000 feet, according to the committee.

Veering left and wobbling

The plane was veering left and wobbling, said Ertata Lanang Galih, a senior pilot and investigator with the committee.

It then ascended from its cruising altitude to 37,400 feet in about 30 seconds in a steep ascent, the chief investigator said.

Commercial planes are not designed to ascend so quickly, and may have been climbing at a rate twice as fast as it should, analysts said.

Officials have said that the aircraft climbed rapidly before it tumbled into the water.

Initial report

Investigators have submitted their preliminary report into the crash, but officials said they would not release it just yet.

It's unclear whether or when the initial report will be released.

While that report presents facts, officials indicated there isn't enough verification yet.

CNN's Faith Karimi wrote and reported from Atlanta, and journalist Masrur Jamaluddin reported from Jakarta, Indonesia

 

[GarvenDreis]

Body of British passenger recovered from wreckage of crashed AirAsia plane seven weeks after crash which killed 155

• Body of British passenger Choi Chi-Man, 48, recovered from AirAsia flight
• He was travelling with daughter Zoe, two, when flight QZ8501 disappeared
• Only on flight as could not get enough seats to fly with his wife and son
• Purchased tickets on Boxing Day and they were seated in the first row
• AirAsia flight crashed in the Java Sea on December 27, killing 162 people

By Thomas Burrows for MailOnline
Published: 13:43 GMT, 14 February 2015 | Updated: 17:11 GMT, 14 February 2015

The body of Choi Chi-Man, 48, who died when an AirAsia flight crashed in the Java Sea on December 27 has been recovered

The body of a British man who died when an AirAsia flight crashed in the Java Sea in December has been found.

Choi Chi-Man, 48, was travelling with his two-year-old daughter Zoe on flight QZ8501 from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore when it disappeared on December 27 with 162 people on board.

Mr Choi, a university of Essex graduate who has family in Hull, was managing director of an energy company in Indonesia.

He purchased his plane ticket and that of his two-year-old daughter Zoe on Boxing Day - according to the passenger manifest - and they were seated in the first row, in seats 1B and 1C.

Mr Choi's wife, Mei-Yi Wee and son Luca, five, had caught an earlier fight to Singapore's Changi Airport.

AirAsia flight QZ8501 departed Surabaya at 5.30am local time and was scheduled to land at Changi Airport at 8.30am local time.

However, it lost contact with air traffic control during the flight, just after the pilot reportedly asked to deviate from the flight path due to bad weather.

The Airbus A320 was last seen on radar at 6:16am local time but vanished less than a minute later.

All 155 passengers and seven crew on board flight QZ8501 died.

In 30 seconds, it rose from 32,000 feet to 37,400 feet. The flight then dipped to 32,000 feet, before descending for around three minutes after which the plane's black boxes stopped.

Mr Choi and his two-year-old daughter Zoe were only on the flight as he could not get enough seats to fly with his wife and son - they were waiting at Singapore's Changi Airport for them to arrive

All 155 passengers and seven crew on board AirAsia flight QZ8501 died when it crashed on December 27

Flight QZ8501 departed Surabaya, Indonesia, at 5.30am local time and was scheduled to land at Singapore's Changi Airport at 8.30am local time. However, it lost contact with traffic control over the Java Sea

An investigation into the cause of the crash is still continuing.

Last month, in a statement to an Indonesian parliamentary committee, the country's transport minister Ignasius Jonan said the plane was believed to have stalled after climbing too fast to avoid a storm.

At least 47 bodies have been recovered so far from the crash.

In a statement the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: 'We can confirm the identification of the British victim of Air Asia flight QZ8501, Choi Chi-Man .

'Our thoughts are with his family and we continue to provide them with support at this difficult time.'

 

[GarvenDreis]

AirAsia Flight 8501 Fuselage Recovered From Java Sea

Indonesia’s national search agency says no more bodies found when fuselage raised

A coffin containing the remains of one of those on board crashed AirAsia Flight 8501 is loaded on to a plane in Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia, on Feb. 8, 2015. PHOTO: REUTERS

By I MADE SENTANA
Feb. 28, 2015 5:23 a.m. ET

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Searchers have recovered the fuselage of AirAsia Flight 8501, which crashed into the Java Sea late last year, an official said Saturday.

Tatang Zaenudin, deputy operations officer at Indonesia’s national search agency, told The Wall Street Journal that a crane lifted the badly damage jet fuselage from the sea floor Friday.

“The fuselage is now being shipped to Jakarta. Depending on the weather situation, the ship may arrive Sunday evening or Monday morning at the Tanjung Priok Port,” said Mr. Zaenudin, referring to the seaport in Jakarta.

The Airbus A320 crashed while flying to Singapore from East Java’s city of Surabaya on Dec. 28 last year, with 162 passengers and crew on board. Authorities haven’t announced the cause of the crash, but the plane climbed steeply before going into a stall and descent.

The fuselage was discovered more than a month ago, but bad weather hampered the efforts to recover it.

Mr. Zaenudin said conditions had improved in recent days, as Indonesia approaches the end of the wet season. He said searchers didn’t find any bodies in the process of recovering the fuselage and, as a result, the agency may decide to end the search for about 60 bodies that are yet to be found.

 

[GarvenDreis]

Indonesia calls off AirAsia search

AFP
March 18, 2015, 4:00 am

Jakarta (AFP) - Indonesian search and rescue teams were Tuesday ending the hunt for victims from last year's AirAsia plane crash, an official said, with 56 people still unaccounted for.

Flight QZ8501 went down in stormy weather during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore on December 28, killing all 162 people on board.

The crash of the Airbus A320-200 into the Java Sea sparked a huge international hunt, with ships and aircraft from several nations scouring the sea for the plane wreckage and the victims.

The search was scaled back dramatically in recent weeks, with foreign vessels withdrawing as well as the Indonesian military, which had provided the bulk of personnel and equipment.

Indonesia's civilian search and rescue agency had continued the hunt, but on a smaller scale and their teams were only occasionally finding more bodies and wreckage.

S.B. Supriyadi, the search agency official coordinating the effort, told AFP that the search would "end completely" on Tuesday and that the vessels still involved would pull out.

"All four ships will return to Jakarta tomorrow (Wednesday) morning," he said.

The total number of victims found stood at 106, he said. Search teams last found more bodies on Saturday, when three were discovered under some wreckage, he added.

The last major part of the fuselage that could be recovered was pulled from the sea last month.

The decision to end the hunt came after AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes signalled last week that operations were drawing to a close.

The chief of the Malaysian low-cost airline said that the operation had been "successful" but added that it could not "go on indefinitely".

"There is a time period and we've agreed with the families that this is obviously not something that can go on indefinitely," he said.

"But it's important for us that the families agreed on this and that's why I give them credit that they didn't keep insisting that we go on forever."

The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee has so far shed little light on what caused the flight to crash, or what occurred in the moments before the tragedy.

It has reported that the plane climbed rapidly in an area of towering storm clouds before crashing, and that the co-pilot was at the controls, rather than the more experienced pilot, in the moments before the accident.

The plane's black box flight data recorders have been recovered, which will provide vital clues as investigators seek to figure out what caused the crash.

Indonesia will release the final report into the crash by August, the transport minister told AFP last month.