Indonesian air crash that killed 62 – faulty system, poor pilot monitoring contributed, investigators find
- Sriwijaya jet crashed into sea after take-off from Jakarta in 2021, killing all 62 people on board, was Indonesia’s third major plane accident in six years
- Problems with the automatic throttle that controls engine power were reported 65 times since 2013 but were still unresolved before the accident
A faulty automatic engine throttle system that was not properly monitored by pilots led to the deadly January 2021 crash of a Sriwijaya Co 737-500 jet, Indonesia’s air accident investigator KNKT said in a final report on Thursday.
The crash into the Java Sea after take-off from Jakarta, which killed all 62 people on board, was Indonesia’s third major commercial plane crash in just over six years and shone a spotlight on its poor air safety record.
Problems with the automatic throttle system that automatically controls engine power had been reported 65 times in the 26-year-old jet’s maintenance logs since 2013 and were still unresolved before the accident, the agency said in its 202-page report.
A working autothrottle is not required for a plane to be dispatched because pilots can control the thrust levers manually.
However, KNKT said in this case they did not appear to have closely monitored the asymmetrical thrust situation involving the left engine throttle lever moving back to as low as 34 per cent speed after take-off while the right lever stayed in its original climb setting at about 92 per cent.
“There were several indications available that the pilots could have checked to identify the aircraft anomalies, such as engine parameters, thrust levers position, and roll angle,” the agency said, adding that complacency and confirmation bias may have been a factor in the poor monitoring.