[Peetwo]

Thank you Ventus..

Here is the latest from the ABC with additional links for other news outlets:

AirAsia QZ8501: Investigation into downed flight finds maintenance and crew error to blame


By Indonesia correspondent Samantha Hawley, wires
 Tue 1 Dec 2015, 7:29pm

Photo: Analysis of the plane's black boxes has now been released by Indonesia's Transport Safety Bureau. (Reuters: Antara Photo Agency, file photo)


An investigation into the downing of an AirAsia flight last year has found both maintenance and crew error to blame for the crash.

Flight QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea during a short flight from Surabaya to Singapore in December 2014, killing all 162 on board.

Analysis of the plane's black boxes has now been released by Indonesia's Transport Safety Bureau, showing unresolved repetitive faults with the aircraft.

A fault with the rudder control system was a major factor in the plane's downing, Indonesian investigators said.

Repeated problems with the system led to the pilots disengaging the autopilot in stormy weather in a bid to fix the situation, and then losing control of the Airbus A320-200, Indonesia's official National Transportation Safety Committee said.


Photo: A member of Indonesia's search and rescue team walks past a piece of the plane wreckage. (AFP: Yudha Manx, file photo)

In their final report into the crash, investigators said the soldering on the Rudder Travel Limiter system — which helps control the rudder's movement — was cracked, leading it to send repeated warning messages to the pilots.

When they received the fourth warning, the pilots pulled circuit-breakers on part of the aircraft's control system in a bid to reset the system.

This turned off the autopilot, and the plane then started to roll, the report said.
"Subsequent flight crew action resulted in inability to control the aircraft," the report said.
The plane went into a "prolonged stall condition that was beyond the capability of the crew to recover", it said.

It added the flight data recorders did not indicate the weather had affected the aircraft.
The report also said the AirAsia plane had the same problem with its rudder system 23 times in the 12 months before the December crash.

ABC/wires
From other news sites:

• The Sydney Morning Herald: Crew's actions blamed for AirAsia crash
  
• Mirror: AirAsia Flight QZ8501 plane crash: Live updates as investigators reveal what caused tragedy that left 162 dead
  
• CNN: Report: Pilot response to equipment malfunction led to Air Asia QZ8501 crash
  
• The Independent (UK): AirAsia flight QZ8501: 'Crew action' caused loss of control of flight that crashed into Java sea killing 162
  
• Daily Mail: AirAsia jet crash which killed all 162 on board was caused by cracked flight computer and 'subsequent crew actions', say investigators
  

   

News



 
2015
 
Publications - Update (01/12/2015)
 

Media Release English / Indonesia

Subject: NTSC Final Investigation Report into Airbus 320-216 - PK-AXC
involving Indonesia Air Asia Company Flight QZ-8501 during flight at Karimata Strait,
Coordinate 3�37'19"S-109�42'41"E - Java Sea on 28 December 2014

 FINAL REPORT (Aviation Division) - RELEASED on DECEMBER 1, 2015
Indonesia Air Asia Company Flight QZ-8501, AIRBUS 320-216 - PK-AXC,
During flight at Karimata Strait - Coordinate 3�37'19"S-109�42'41"E,
Java Sea, December 28, 2014

Thank heavens for Ben - Finally after all the somewhat regurgitated MSM crap on the QZ8501 Final Report PT shines a light on the bollocks that is being currently smeared around:

Harsh truths about crash of AirAsia QZ8501 come out

Ben Sandilands | Dec 01, 2015 8:25PM |

This AirAsa jet flew with a serious fault for a year before killing 162 people

The headlines tonight in some reports about the Indonesian accident inquiry findings into AirAsia’s Java Sea disaster late in 2014 claim it was pilot error, which is a serious misreading of the situation.

The 162 people who were slaughtered on flight QZ8501 on its way from Surabaya to Singapore last 28 December were killed by AirAsia’s persistent inability to correctly maintain the A320 by failing to repair a cracked solder joint in its rudder travel limiter system despite its being recorded as defective 23 times in the year before the jet plunged out of control into a shallow but fast moving sea.

The statement by Indonesia’s Transportation Safety Board says that this part failed a further  four times immediately before the jet crashed, sending repeated systems warnings to the pilots before one of them pulled circuit breakers on part of the control system in an attempt to reset it.

This disconnected the autopilot and left the two pilots in a position where taking manual control of the jet was outside their trained capabilities. The transportation board statement says “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.”

This is damning stuff. AirAsia is responsible for the safe maintenance of its aircraft and responsible for the skills and actions of its pilots. It killed 162 people, their unborn descendants, their hopes, their destinies,  and harmed those families or relatives who depended on them. Most of them remain in the sea, skeletons that the founder and CEO of AirAsia Tony Fernandes had the hide to call ‘guests’.

This miserable, tragic, disgraceful and shameful incident overtook a jet that is flown in its thousands around the world, and happened in a busy and turbulent part of the skies over Indonesia that tens of thousands of other flights have successfully navigated without such a mishap in the space of a year notwithstanding the disappearance of MH370, which began somewhat to the north over the Gulf of Thailand on  8 March 2014.

When airlines kill their guests, or passengers, they ought not be allowed to slide away behind bland statements which some media turned into a ‘get the pilot moment’ which is the case with some reports this evening.

AirAsia killed its guests through inadequate maintenance. How inexcusable is it to have a repeated fault in a component which is vital to the proper control of an aircraft and fail to fix it for a year? How could it allow its pilots to fly such a compromised jet without the skills required to recover it if the faulty soldering failure to the point of causing an inflight upset?

Just how did this fit in with the safety culture of AirAsia, and how should potential guests react to this situation? These are critical questions for air travellers, and air safety regulators, to carefully consider.

  
Choccy frog Ben if you can stomach it..  


MTF..P2