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Pilot error blamed for Indonesian plane crash

Pilot error and a faulty navigation system caused an Indonesian jetliner to plunge into the sea from 10,000m last year, killing all 102 people on board, an investigation into the crash showed yesterday.

The National Transportation Safety Committee said 154 recurring defects in the Boeing 737's navigation system were reported in the months leading up to the disaster, and that low-cost carrier Adam Air failed to properly address those reports.

Last week, the government revoked the airline's operating license because of its poor safety record.

The plane was flying from the main island of Java to an airport in the east of Indonesia on New Year's Day when it spiraled from the sky.

Several days passed before fisherman and navy boats discovered wreckage from the plane floating on the ocean. Both flight data recorders were eventually recovered from the sea bed, but the plane's mostly intact fuselage remains there.

NAVIGATION SYSTEM

The safety committee's report said the plane's navigation system malfunctioned.

When the pilots tried to fix it, the jetliner's autopilot disengaged, causing the jetliner to slowly bank to the right.

"Preoccupation with a malfunction of the Inertial Reference System diverted both pilots' attention from the flight instruments and allowed the increasing descent and bank angle to go unnoticed," the report said.

"The pilots did not detect and appropriately arrest the descent soon enough to prevent loss of control," it said.

The accident was one of a spate in Indonesia in recent years, including one involving the national carrier Garuda that killed 21, leading the EU to ban all Indonesian airlines and the US to warn that they did not meet international standards.

LACKING

Adam Air was one of dozens of new airlines to emerge in Indonesia after it deregulated its aviation industry in the 1990s. But trained aviation professionals, regulatory oversight and decent ground infrastructure are all lacking in the country, experts say.

The New Year's Day crash was not the first incident involving faulty navigation systems on Adam Air jets.

In February 2006, another of its Boeing 737s went missing for hours following a navigation and communications breakdown and eventually made an emergency landing hundreds of kilometers from its destination in eastern Indonesia.
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