Indonesian air crash investigators send plane parts to US, UK for checks
02 February, 2021
Indonesia's air accident investigator has sent five parts of a good crashed Sriwijaya Air jet to the United States and Britain for examination, like the autothrottle that controls engine power automatically, the agency's head stated on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old Boeing Co 737-500 crashed in to the Java Sea shortly after takeoff from Jakarta on Jan 9, killing all 62 persons on board.
National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) Chief Soerjanto Tjahjono told Reuters the pieces had been directed for examination to greatly help find out just why an autothrottle parameter had changed. He didn't identify the other areas.
The plane's flight info recorder (FDR) has been found and read by investigators but a maritime search is going on for the cockpit voice recorder's (CVR) memory unit that Tjahjono said would support explain any human factors behind the crash.
"If we only possess the FDR, we have no idea why the parameter changed, that which was the reason why," he said of the autothrottle. "We are in need of confirmation from the components that we sent to the US and UK and the CVR."
KNKT said last month it had been investigating whether a difficulty with the autothrottle program contributed to the crash given a concern with it turned out reported on a good flight a couple of days earlier.
It really is acceptable for a plane to fly with an autothrottle system that's not working because pilots can control it manually instead.
KNKT plans to concern a preliminary report into the crash soon, possibly in Feb. 9, Tjahjono explained.
Citing sources near to the investigation, the Wall Road Journal (WSJ) last month reported the FDR info showed the autothrottle program was not operating properly using one of the plane's engines since it climbed on departure out of Jakarta.
Rather than shutting off the system, the FDR indicated the pilots tried to get the stuck throttle to operate, the WSJ said. That could create significant dissimilarities in power between engines, producing the jet harder to regulate.
Tjahjono said the WSJ report was incorrect and more info would be provided in the KNKT's preliminary report.
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