First officer flying AirAsia jet at time of crash-investigators
admin • January 29, 2015 • 2259
Rescue team members walk as they carry the wreckage of a seat of the AirAsia Flight QZ8501 airliner at Kumai port in Pangkalan Bun, January 19, 2015. CREDIT: REUTERS/BEAWIHARTA
(Reuters) – The French first officer of an AirAsia (AIRA.KL) passenger jet that crashed into the sea last month was at the controls at the time of the accident, Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) said on Thursday.
Mardjono Siswosuwarno, head investigator for the NTSC, told reporters the flight data recorder recovered from the bottom of the Java Sea provided a “pretty clear picture” of what happened in the last moments of AirAsia Flight QZ8501. But he did not give details.
The Airbus (AIR.PA) A320 vanished from radar screens in bad weather on Dec. 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia’s second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore. All 162 people on board were killed.
“The second-in-command, popularly known as the co-pilot, who usually sits to the right of the cockpit. At the time, he was flying the plane,” Mardjono said. “The captain, sitting to the left, was the pilot monitoring.”
Mardjono said the cockpit voice and flight data recorders showed that the plane had been cruising at a stable altitude before the crash. The aircraft was in sound condition when it took off, and all crew members were properly certified, he said.
“The plane was flying before the incident within the limits of weight and balance envelope,” Mardjono said. “While flight crew had valid licences and medical certificates.”
NTSC chief Tatang Kurniadi told the same Jakarta news conference that Indonesia had submitted its preliminary report on the crash to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on Wednesday, as required under global aviation rules.
The report, which has not been made public, was purely factual and contained no analysis, he said, adding that the full, final report would take at least 6-7 months to complete.
Indonesia has previously said the aircraft climbed abruptly from its cruising height and then stalled, or lost lift, before plunging out of control into the Java Sea.
On Wednesday Indonesia said the search for dozens of victims still unaccounted for could end within days if no more bodies were found.
A multinational search and recovery operation has found 70 bodies in the Java Sea and had hoped to find more after finding the fuselage of the plane. But days of rough weather and poor underwater visibility hampered navy divers’ efforts.
(Reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor, Fergus Jensen and Fransiska Nangoy; Writing by Randy Fabi; Editing by Alex Richardson)
MANILA, Philippines—The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has turned over four rescued kidnap victims of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) to the Indonesian government.
AFP Chief Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana on Tuesday (March 23) led the turnover ceremony at the General Headquarters Canopy Area in Camp Aguinaldo. The Indonesian Embassy led by Charge d’affaires, Widya Rahmanto received the kidnap victims.
“The kidnap victims have been held captive by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) for more than a year and through the AFP’s relentless efforts, the ASG who were based in Sulu, were driven out of their comfort zones and mass base, which eventually led to the successful rescue operation last week in Tawi-Tawi,” Sobejana said.
The four Indonesians namely, Riswanto Bin Hayono, Arical Kastamiran, Arsyad Bin Dahalan, and Khairuldin Bin Yai Kii were flown to Manila from Zamboanga City on Sunday (March 21).
Hayono, Kastamiran and Dahalan were among the rescued individuals in South Ubian, Tawi-Tawi on March 18 by Tandubas Police. Meanwhile, the 15-year old Yai Kii was rescued by elements of the Joint Task Force Tawi-Tawi on Sunday in Kalupag Island, Languyan, Tawi-Tawi. AAC
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine National Railway (PNR) inaugurated on Thursday (January 28) three new diesel hydraulic locomotives (DHL) with 15 passenger coaches that were built in Indonesia.
The new train sets are designed to provide commuters smoother and more convenient rides from the Tutuban Station in Manila to Los Baños in Laguna.
With the addition of the new train sets, the PNR Metro Commuter Line now targets to serve a total of 140,000 passengers daily, doubling its existing capacity from 48,000 to 60,000 per day.
Thursday’s inaugural run from the PNR Dela Rosa Station in Makati to the Manila Tutuban Station was graced by Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade, PNR General Manager Junn Magno as well as representatives from the Republic of Indonesia Embassy in Manila, and representatives from PT Industri Kereta Api (PT-INKA) the firm that made the train sets.
Secretary Tugade said the inaugural run of the new train sets assures the riding public of safe, convenient, and comfortable travels.
“Ngayon po, patuloy na binabago natin ang PNR. ‘Kailan darating ang bagong tren?’ Ngayon po, dumating na ang bagong tren. At ‘Kailan naman natin masasakyan ang bagong tren?’ Ngayon po, pasisinayaan at sasakyan natin ang mga bagong tren,” Secretary Tugade said.
The new train sets are part of the PNR Management Re-fleeting Strategy which involves the delivery of train sets composed of 37 cars and three locomotives procured in 2018.
Meanwhile, GM Magno explained that the train sets are composed of three diesel hydraulic locomotives and 15 coaches equivalent to nine train sets.
Each train can accommodate 1,330 passengers per set in a single trip but due to physical distance the capacity is scaled down to 700 passengers per trip.
The train sets have a maximum design speed of 120 kilometers per hour, with high clearance for flooded tracks.
Each train set features an interior access to the engine room, the first of its kind for the PNR fleet.
The train sets are also equipped with 36,000 kilocalories per hour of air conditioning in each coach that is suitable for tropical countries like the Philippines.
Among its main features is the diesel hydraulic engine which can run even in floodwater.
“Itong mga tren na ito lahat ng equipment nilipat natin lahat sa locomotive pati mga generator so kapag tinignan nyo ilalim nyan wala nang laman,” Magno said.
“So pwede siyang pumunta sa baha hanggang 18 inches na tubig above nung top nung rail,” he added.
The official, meanwhile, asks residents living near the train rails not to throw anything on the passing trains.
“Iyong mga tren po natin although matitibay iyan mga bago yan hindi na nababasag ang salamin,” Magno explained.
“Huwag nyo na pong subukan para po sa ating nga kababayan iyan. Ipe-fence off napo namin. Maguumpisa na ang construction dito sa North-South Commuter railway. Ipe-fence off na po namin ang right of way,” he said. MNP (with inputs from Joan Nano)
Retrieval operations are underway after the Indonesia National Transport Safety Committee located two black boxes of Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737 that crashed on January 9.
The black boxes, or the flight data recorders can help in determining the cause of the plane crash.
On Sunday (January 10), Indonesian authorities said they found the location of the black boxes after retrieving several parts of the plane’s fuselage. Several bodies of the passengers were also found and retrieved.
The Sriwijaya Air Jet was carrying 62 people en route to Pontianak in West Kalimantan. It disappeared from the radar a few minutes after it took flight.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has ordered the National Transport Safety Committee to conduct an investigation into the incident.
This is the first major crash in Indonesia since 2018, where 189 passengers and crew were killed after a Lion Air Boeing 737 Max crashed into the Java sea after its take off from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. AAC (with reports from Salvie Alvarez)
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