1 year ago today, Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 (PK-AXC) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore. The Airbus A320-200 was carrying 155 passengers which included 137 adults, 17 children and one infant. The crew consisted of two pilots, 4 flight attendants and a company engineer. Nationality included Indonesia, South Korea, France, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
QZ8501 took off from Juanda International Airport at 05:35 Western Indonesian Time 28 December 2014. (22:35 UTC 27 December 2014). At 06:12WIT (23:12UTC) the pilot request permission to climb to 38,000ft to avoid big storm clouds. Shortly after at 6:18 Western Indonesian Time (23:18 UTC) ATC lost contact with the aircraft.
Two days after the crash, debris from the aircraft & human remains were found floating in the Java Sea. Searchers located wreckage on the sea floor on 3 January, and the black boxes were recovered on 13 January. By the end of March 2015, 113 of the 162 bodies were recovered.
On 20 January 2015, it was reported that the aircraft had stalled in bad weather during an abnormally steep climb and had been unable to recover.
FDR data at the time of the stall showed sidesticks dual input. The captain pulled up (LEFT). The co-pilot pushed down (RIGHT). Which resulted in no movement of the elevator control surfaces (=0) and the plane stalled until the recording ended.
On 1 December 2015, the NTSC released its report concluding that the sequence of events leading to the crash started with a malfunction in the rudder travel limiter unit that eventually led to a 104-degree roll of the aircraft. The pilots response & miscommunication was linked in the chain of events that led to the loss of the aircraft.
Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 final report:
http://kemhubri.dephub.go.id/knkt/ntsc_home/ntsc.htm
Article by: @AirCrashMayday
