Air Asia pilots cut power to a critical computer system and crashed

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

Experts analyzing the crash of Air Asia flight 8501 have a difficult time to understand why pilots cut power to the entire flight-protection system on this plane , which is comprised of two separate

Experts analyzing the crash of Air Asia flight 8501 have a difficult time to understand why pilots cut power to the entire flight-protection system on this plane , which is comprised of two separate computers that serve as backups to each other. A normally functioning A320โ€™s flight-protection system was bypassed. Why did the pilots pulled the plane into a steep climb? Even with the computers shut off, the pilots should have been able to fly the plane manually.

The pilots of AirAsia Bhd. Flight 8501 cut power to a critical computer system that normally prevents planes from going out of control shortly before it plunged into the Java Sea, two people with knowledge of the investigation said.

The action appears to have helped trigger the events of Dec. 28, when the Airbus Group NV A320 plane climbed so abruptly that it lost lift and it began falling with warnings blaring in the cockpit, the people said. All 162 aboard were killed.

The pilots had been attempting to deal with alerts about the flight augmentation computers, which control the A320โ€™s rudder and also automatically prevent it from going too slow.

Flight 8501 climbed more than 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) in less than 30 seconds, rising above the altitude where it was authorized to fly, Ertata Lananggalih, an investigator with Indonesiaโ€™s National Transportation Safety Committee, said in Jakarta on Thursday.

The co-pilot, with 2,247 hours of flying experience, was at the controls and communicating with the ground while the captain, who had 20,537 hours, was monitoring.

From a cruising altitude of 32,000 feet, the single-aisle A320 climbed to 37,400 feet as pilots probably tried to avoid bad weather. The aircraft then descended slowly for three minutes before it disappeared, he said.

The pilots had sought permission from air traffic control to turn left and then to climb to 38,000 feet because of storm clouds. Four minutes after the request, a controller cleared the pilots to climb to 34,000 feet, he said.

Satellite imagines showed storm clouds that reached as high as 44,000 feet.

All Airbus models produced since the 1980s are designed to prevent pilot errors from causing crashes. The planes are controlled by multiple flight computers, which limit pilots from overly steep turns or getting too slow.

In the event of a malfunction or loss of power, the flight protections will shut down and leave the pilots to fly the plane manually. That appears to be what happened before Flight 8501 entered the steep climb and stalled, the two people said.

The cockpit-voice recorder captured the pilotsโ€™ voices and no explosion was heard. The black box voice-recorder captured the last two hours and four minutes of the flight. After studying data from the black boxes, authorities ruled out terrorism as a factor that brought down the plane.

Flight 8501 appeared to have stalled after climbing steeply, Minister of Transportation Ignasius Jonan said earlier this month. A stall occurs when airflow over the wings is disrupted or becomes too slow to provide lift and keep a plane aloft.

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Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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