AirAsia QZ8501: TWU Wants Airline’s Operations Suspended In Australia

RTR4NEEE — Tatang Kurniadi (L), chief of the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) holds a model plane during a news conference in Jakarta January 29, 2015. The French first officer of an AirAsia passenger jet that crashed into the sea last month was at the controls at the time of the accident, Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee said on Thursday. The Airbus A320 vanished from radar screens in bad weather on Dec. 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. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside REUTERS/Darren Whiteside

The Australian Transport Workers Union wants all operations of AirAsia suspended in the country in light of investigations into the crash of Flight QZ8501.

Tony Sheldon, TWU national secretary, said it lodged the request pending a safety audit of the airline. Earlier, reports had flaunted that AirAsia QZ8501 had crashed due to a computer glitch and pilot error, aside from weather circumstances at the time of its flight.

"We need to ensure that a rapidly expanding airline like AirAsia Indonesia is not cutting corners," Sheldon said. AirAsia flies in and out of Darwin and Perth in Australia. Sheldon said they had also requested an urgent audit of the airline’s training and aircraft maintenance. He said much is at stake, and that “Australian lives are at risk."

Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority said it had actually conducted ramp checks of Indonesia AirAsia (IAA) right after the fatal crash of AirAsia QZ8501 into the Java Sea which killed all 196 on board. The agency said it “found no safety concerns during these inspections,” according to The Australian.

“CASE is monitoring the situation closely and will take relevant action as required,” it said. Sheldon clarified the suspension TWU is seeking will only cover until AirAsia’s pilot training and aircraft maintenance standards have been found acceptable under Australian standards. “We also want to see greater transparency and do not want to have to wait several months before an official report from Indonesia is made public,” Sheldon added.

A preliminary report submitted to the International Civil Aviation Organisation in late January had hinted that the December 2014 crash of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 was due to a computer glitch and pilot error. Investigators said the power of the twin Flight Augmentation Computers (FAC) may have tripped, rendering the pilots blind as they tried to maintain control of the Airbus A320 jet amid the prevailing weather conditions.

But various reports over the weekend flaunted Captain Iriyanto may had tried to reset the FAC and then pulled a circuit-breaker that eventually cut its power, which could explain why he was not at his seat when his co-pilot apparently lost control of the Airbus A320 jet. Citing an unidentified source, Reuters reported the captain had flown on the very same plane days earlier and with the device still intermittently faulty.

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