An AirAsia crash report released by Indonesian government’s National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) has revealed something very interesting. Based on an analysis of the data recorder from the ill-fated flight QZ8501, the report that was released on Tuesday, says that the crash was not caused by any weather turbulence but the inadequate and inexperienced actions of the crew. The A320 Airbus also had a repetitive maintenance fault, which went unnoticed by AirAsia authorities.

According to ABC News, it is now clear that the plane’s rudder developed a problem which was very much fixable. However, the crew members were not able to take corrective measures in time, which led to the crash.

Aviation expert Steve Ganyard has analysed the AirAsia crash report and has pointed out that a series of human errors followed after a minor computer problem on board. Repeated alerts were sent to the pilots by the rudder control system. However, the problem was not serious enough to lead to a crash. The crew’s inappropriate pulling of the circuit breakers made the flight controls unstable and as a result, many protections were removed.

“The crew's improper control inputs led to a loss of control which this crew were not capable of recovering from,” Ganyard said.

People states that initial reports right after the crash reported stormy weather may have led to the crash. However, NTSC has conclusive data that the aircraft was absolutely “airworthy” and the crew members should have been able to recover the plane’s stall had they followed their training.

“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 investigator Nurcahyo Utomo.

Utomo is of the opinion that the technical snag was not at all dangerous. However, when crew members tried and reset the system, which was unnecessary, the autopilot disengaged and the Airbus started rolling.

AirAsia Indonesia has released a statement stating that a new system to provide real-time monitoring of aircraft warning messages has been implemented along with additional pilot training.

News.com.au provides the details of what actually went wrong.

  • A cracked solder on the Rudder Travel Limiter System resulted in an electrical disruption and the autopilot got disengaged.

  • The pilots started receiving repeated warning messages. The “master caution” alarm sounded thrice and pilots responded immediately. But the fourth time, the remedy didn’t work.

  • The pilots incorrectly pulled a circuit breaker that turned off the autopilot and the plane started to roll.

  • The co-pilot probably out of spatial disorientation shifted sidestick to the left that caused the plane to roll back to the left by up to 50 degrees.

  • The plane went into a prolonged stall condition from which the crew couldn’t recover.

The crash in the Java Sea on Dec. 28 last year killed 162 people out of which 155 were from Indonesia, three from South Korea and one each from Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France. The ill-fated flight was flying from Surabaya to Singapore.

AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes tweeted yesterday that a lot can be learned by AirAsia, the manufacturer and the aviation industry from this tragic incident. He added that the company will leave no stone unturned and make sure that the industry learns from this incident.

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