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JAKARTA: Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee said on Wednesday (February 10) that investigations into the Sriwijaya Air SJ 182 that crashed last month would focus on the aircraft’s automatic throttle system.
Preliminary investigations showed that the system, which controls engine power automatically, may have malfunctioned.
At a press conference to announce its preliminary report, the committee’s head of aviation, Nurcahyo Utomo, said that both of the plane’s automatic throttles were showing anomalies.
“For the one on the left, the recoil was too much, while the one on the right did not move, so it got stuck. We don’t know which one was broken, the left or the right,” he added.
Utomo added that the investigation would focus on the aircraft’s automatic throttle system and related components installed on the aircraft, the aircraft’s maintenance record, and the possible human factors involved.
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The Sriwijaya Air plane took off from Jakarta on January 9 and was heading for Pontianak, West Kalimantan, when it disappeared from radar screens just four minutes after takeoff.
Air traffic control at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport asked the pilot seconds before he disappeared why he was heading northwest instead of following his expected flight path, but never received a response.
Authorities concluded that the plane crashed into the Java Sea leaving no survivors. All 62 people on board died.
FILE PHOTO: Indonesian naval personnel carry a body bag on the last day of the search and rescue operation for Sriwijaya Air Flight SJ 182, which crashed into the Java Sea, at the Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta, Indonesia, January 21, 2021. REUTERS / Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana
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The flight data recorder from the unfortunate flight was recovered, but authorities are still searching for the missing cockpit voice recorder that could shed light on what actually happened.
The Boeing 737-500 aircraft was almost 27 years old.
AUTOTROTTLE SYSTEM REPAIRED DAYS BEFORE JANUARY 9
At Wednesday’s press conference, Utomo also revealed that the plane’s automatic throttle was broken prior to Jan.9, but that it had been repaired.
“On January 3, 2021, the pilot (from a previous flight) reported that the automatic throttle was unusable. The engineer fixed the problem by cleaning the electrical connector of the automatic throttle computer. After reinstallation, the test result of the integrated test equipment (BITE) was good.
“On January 4, 2021, the pilot reported that the automatic throttle was not working. The engineer attempted to clean the electrical connector on the automatic throttle computer, but the problem persisted.”
An engineer fixed the problem the next day and the BITE test showed it to be good, added Utomo.
“After January 5, there were no more DMI (Deferred Maintenance Items) records in the aircraft’s maintenance record until the date of the accident, January 9, 2021,” he said.
Aside from the automatic throttle, the plane had problems on December 25 with the first officer’s airspeed indicator, but it was replaced on January 4.
The preliminary investigation also showed that the aircraft’s autopilot was deactivated.
The aircraft did not pass through areas with significant cloud, rain, or cloud turbulence.
