AirAsia co-pilot was at controls before fatal crash, investigator says

Jan. 19, 2015: An Indonesian police officer stands guard near the wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501 at a warehouse at Kumai port in Pangkalan Bun. The plane disappeared Dec. 28, 2014 en route from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

The lead investigator looking into the fatal crash of AirAsia Flight 8501 said the co-pilot was at the controls before the jet went into a dangerously fast climb.

Mardjono Siswosuwarno, head of Indonesia’s air-crash probe agency, also told reporters on Thursday that the plane was in sound condition and the cockpit crew had proper licenses before the accident.

Indonesian authorities are delving into what factors may have surprised or confused the first officer, who was much less experienced than the captain, according to two safety experts familiar with the probe. Investigators, these people said, seek to determine what caused the nose of the Airbus A320 to point upward at an unusually steep angle, while the plane’s computerized stall-protection systems either malfunctioned or were disengaged.

The Airbus A320 lost forward airspeed during its rapid climb, stalled and then crashed into the water below.

After spending more than two weeks analyzing twin black-box recorders, investigators believe First Officer Rémi-Emmanuel Plesel, a French national born in the Caribbean territory of Martinique, was flying the aircraft as it maneuvered to avoid a storm cell on Dec. 28 en route to Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia. Turbulence or updrafts are suspected of contributing to the plane’s dramatic climb, but investigators continue to examine the interaction of pilot commands and computer-controlled flight systems during the climb and subsequent descent.

Repeated automated stall warnings were captured on the cockpit-voice recorder as the co-pilot and captain struggled unsuccessfully to regain control of the jet, investigators have said.

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AirAsia co-pilot was at controls before fatal crash, investigator says

AirAsia plane crash caps disastrous 2014 for aviation

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — If you weren’t already nervous about flying that may have changed in 2014, a year that stirred our deepest fears about modern jet travel despite shaping up as one of the safest in aviation history.

The tragic dramas surrounding Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia played out before unprecedented global television and Internet audiences, confronting the travelling public with the startling truth that planes can be shot down or simply disappear.

The events triggered the first major worldwide reviews of aviation precautions in years, and gave ‘aerophobes’ a new reason to tense up on take-off.

“I always disliked flying but now it’s a real ordeal,” said Marie Lefebvre, a Bangkok-based Canadian businesswoman who has curtailed her frequent business travel. She now occasionally takes sedatives before take-off.

“It’s that feeling of helplessness. Some of the things this year were terrifying.”

Exhibit A was MH370, which took its place alongside Amelia Earhart’s vanishing as one of aviation’s great mysteries, a buzzword for the terror of vanishing without a trace.

The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8 with 239 people aboard after its communications systems were apparently deliberately shut off. No trace of it has been found.

It remains unknown whether an on-board emergency, hijack, rogue pilots, fire among lithium batteries in its hold, or other less-plausible theories were responsible.

Four months later, MH17 was blown out of the sky over Ukraine, killing all 298 aboard and stoking superpower rivalries when the West accused Russia-backed rebels of downing it with a missile.

The following week, the crashes of a TransAsia Airways flight amid rough weather in the Taiwan Strait and Air Algerie flight 5017 in Mali for reasons still unknown killed a combined 164 people, giving the impression planes were literally falling from the skies.

Capping off the disastrous year, an AirAsia jet carrying 162 people apparently crashed on Sunday en route from Surabaya in Indonesia’s east Java to Singapore.

The flight lost contact during stormy weather and Indonesian authorities have since spotted debris believed to be from the plane, as well as what they believe to be the bodies of passengers.

Ironically, however, 2014 continued a long-term trend of improving air safety.

A record low of seven fatal commercial passenger incidents, not including AirAsia, occurred this year, according to the Netherlands-based Aviation Safety Network, an infinitesimal figure amid the several million flights and billions of passengers each year.

There were 15 such accidents last year, while the annual average since 1946 is 32.

“It’s so safe now that incidents tend to be more mysterious and striking because crashes only happen in extremely rare circumstances,” Gerry Soejatman, a Jakarta-based aviation consultant, said in comments made prior to the AirAsia incident.

“That’s why this year had such an impact. Accidents are so rare that we magnify those that occur.”

However, fatalities were up sharply to 762, the highest in four years, and could rise to 924 if all the AirAsia passengers are declared dead.

There was a record low of 224 deaths last year.

Despite the headlines, air traffic has been unaffected.

Total passenger miles travelled grew a solid 5.8 per cent from January-October, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said this month, forecasting another solid year ahead.

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AirAsia plane
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Strong signals detected in AirAsia black box hunt

Sunday, January 11, 2015 | 2:21 AM    

PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia (AFP) – Indonesian authorities said Sunday strong signals were emanating from the crucial black box recorders of an AirAsia plane that crashed into the sea two weeks ago, killing all 162 people on board.

Military divers were trying to follow the pings to the boxes, believed to be on the floor of the Java Sea about 30 metres (100 feet) underwater, S.B Supriyadi, a director with the National Search and Rescue Agency told AFP.

The hunt came after the mangled tail of the Airbus jet was lifted from the sea on Saturday.

“The ping was detected about one kilometre (0.6 miles) east of the tail,” Supriyadi told AFP at the search headquarters of Panglakun Bun.

The Indonesian meteorological agency has said stormy weather likely caused the Airbus A320-200 to crash.

But a definitive answer is impossible without the black boxes, which should contain the pilots’ final words as well as various flight data.

Supriyadi and other officials involved in the search said they were confident the pings were from the black boxes, describing the signals as strong.

Supriyadi said an object believed to be the main body of the plane had also been detected close to the area from where the pings were emanating.

“We are now trying to check by sending our divers,” he added.

The search efforts, which have involved US, Chinese and other foreign naval ships, has recovered just 48 bodies.

Supriyadi said many of the bodies were believed to be trapped in the cabin, so reaching that part of the wreckage was also a top priority.

All but seven of those on board were Indonesian.

The non-Indonesians were three South Koreans, one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one Briton and a Frenchman — co-pilot Remi Plesel.

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Strong signals detected in AirAsia black box hunt