Sukhoi's Crew Awareless Caused Crash in Mount Salak

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) has concluded that there were three factors that caused the Sukhoi Super Jet 100 to crash into Mount Salak, Bogor, West Java on May 9, 2012.

The Chairman of KNKT, Tatang Kurniadi, said at a press meeting at the KNKT Building in Jakarta on Tuesday that three factors had contributed to the crash of the Sukhoi Super Jet 100.

He said the first factor was that the flight crew was not aware of the mountain flight line, causing them to disobey the Terrain Awareness Warning (TAWS).

"At 2.26 pm local time, the pilot asked for a permit to descend to the 6000 feet level and make a right circle orbit, in order to reduce the flight's altitude before the landing process at anvil 06 in Halim Perdanakusuma Airport. The permit was issued by the Jakarta Approach officer," he said.

Kurniadi added that 38 seconds before the crash, a TAWS audio warning was issued, stating, "Terrain ahead, pull up," followed by six "Avoid terrain" warnings. But the Pilot in Command (PIC) turned off the TAWS alarm, assuming that the warning was caused by an error in the database.

The second factor contributing to the crash was a failure of the Jakarta Radar, which could not provide the air-plane minimum height level vector (the command for flight direction given by the air-traffic regulator to the pilot via radar service) in an area such as Mount Salak.

"The service of the Jakarta Radar is also not yet equipped with a Minimum Safe Altitude Warning (MSAW) that is needed in the Mount Salak areas," said Kurniadi.

"Until the Sukhoi bumped the edge of Mount Salak, the MSAW warning was not given to the Jakarta Approach officer," he added.

The third factor was that the flight crew was distracted by a long conversation, which had nothing to do with the flight process, said Kurniadi.

"This caused the pilot in charge to not change flight direction when the air plane unexpectedly flew out of the orbit," he said.

On the fateful day (May, 9), the Jakarta Approach officer suddenly realized that the Sukhoi Super Jet 100 had disappeared from the radar at 2.50 pm, local time, without any warning on the radar screen.

One day after the plane was officially declared lost, Indonesian National Search and Rescue (Basarnas) successfully found the crash location. All of the crew and passengers were found dead in the wrecked airplane. (*/DWA/T007)