RUDDER FAILURE, PILOT ACTIONS LED TO AIRASIA CRASH
Report: System had repeated problems
The pilots’ failure to correctly respond to a recurring rudder problem led to the crash of an AirAsia commercial jet into the Java Sea a year ago, killing all 162 aboard, Indonesian safety officials said Tuesday.
AirAsia Flight 8501 disappeared from radar screens Dec. 28 about 40 minutes out of Surabaya, Indonesia, bound for Singapore in stormy weather. Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee in a report issued Tuesday said a rudder control system on the Airbus A320 had failed almost two dozen times in the year before the crash.
“The degraded performance and ambiguous commands might have decreased the SIC’s (co-pilot’s) situational awareness and he did not react appropriately in this complex emergency resulting in the aircraft becoming upset,” the report said.
Airbus, the plane’s manufacturer, said in a statement Tuesday that the company is studying the report, to which it contributed technical expertise.
“We are now carefully studying its content,” the statement said. “With safety being top priority, Airbus is fully committed to push the safety track record of our industry even further.”
Maintenance records show an increasing frequency in problems with the rudder. The malfunction, caused by a cracked joint on a circuit board, occurred nine times in December.
The report said an alarm went off several times during the flight, leading the pilots to reset the system. That prompted a series of events that led to the plane rolling out of control. Miscommunication between the pilot and second-incommand apparently added to problem, the report said.