AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Climbed Too Fast - The AirAsia passenger jet that disappeared in Dec. 2014 after it reportedly crash landed into the Java Sea may have fallen from the sky because it was pushed beyond its limits.
Indonesia's Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan revealed in a parliamentary hearing in the country's capital Jakarta on Tuesday that radar data shows that the AirAsia flight QZ8501 climbed too fast and then stalled before it disappeared.
It is unclear what forced the pilots to attempt such a steep rise at high speed. Reports indicate that a short while after the plane took off from the Juanda Airport on Dec. 28, 2014, the pilots had requested permission to climb to 38,000ft (12,000m) from 32,000ft (9,800m) in order to avoid a bad weather. But the request was deferred by the traffic control centre because there was lots of traffic in the area. About 2 minutes later, when the control room was giving the pilots the permission to climb, there was no response from AirAsia flight QZ8501. Radar contact was also lost.
Experts say the plane most likely broke down after the pilots attempted to ascend quickly to avoid the bad weather they had reported to the air traffic center.
"I think it is rare even for a fighter jet to be able to climb 5,000ft per minute," Transport Minister Jonan said. "The average speed of a commercial aircraft is probably between 1,000 and 2,000ft per minute because the aircraft is not designed to soar so fast."
More details about the crash are expected to be made public later in the month when Indonesian authorities release a preliminary report about the accident.
The AirAsia flight QZ8501 crash has been described as one of the most terrible air accidents in the region in recent times. Not one person aboard the flight survived. It was several days before investigators started recovering bodies from the sea. About 30 bodies have reportedly been retrieved thus far. Indonesian authorities are yet to recover the main fuselage of the plane, where most of the bodies are believed to be.
Authorities have ruled our terrorism as a possible cause of the plane crash.
