AirAsia pilots learnt from Java Sea crash, AirBus updates

AirAsia Indonesia’s operations and safety standards will constantly evolve and remain at the highest level in the industry.

KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Indonesia has confirmed, in response to a Foreign Correspondent report carried by ABC News on an air tragedy over the Java Sea in 2014, that it has taken several steps to prevent a recurrence of similar technical and human-related problems.

“The rudder limiter defect did not in itself cause the crash (AirAsia Indonesia) but instead the flight crew’s reaction to a warning alarm about the fault was to blame,” ABC pointed out to AirAsia Indonesia in citing the air crash investigation report.

The airline’s response, available on Foreign Correspondent’s Facebook page, shows that AirAsia pilots completed High Altitude Recovery training following the tragedy, while AirBus revised their Flight Crew Training Manual (FTCM) to include Upset Recovery Training. “This has now become an actual part of their recommended procedures to prevent this from ever happening again,” said AirAsia.

Besides AirAsia Indonesia, the training covered the AirAsia Group including AirAsia X Indonesia.

The airline added that the inclusion of upset recovery training in the group’s recurrent training was among the initiatives taken in line with the recommendations in the Indonesian Crash Report released late last year. “We have also included additional simulator training sessions, in addition to third party audits of our processes and procedures.”

“The safety of our passengers and crew members is our utmost priority. We have taken proactive measures.”

AirAsia Indonesia’s operations and safety standards will constantly evolve and remain at the highest level in the industry, the statement in the Foreign Correspondent’s Facebook page said. “We have implemented the ‘AIRMAN’ system across the group.”

“This provides real-time aircraft system monitoring. We monitor and review it closely to ensure that the information database and analysis are properly managed.”

High Altitude Recovery Training was in fact already included in the training syllabus since 2013, as recommended by AirBus, following the Air France crash in 2009, said the airline in revisiting the latest retraining programme. “This was implemented following the simulator timeline schedule and cycle.”

Elsewhere, the airline intends to complete the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) voluntary audit as part of its “commitment to achieve the highest safety standard”. “AirAsia X had successfully completed IOSA last year and received second certification for the audit this year.”

“We are scheduled to commence the IOSA Audit for AirAsia Indonesia and AirAsia Indonesia X.”

In the December 28, 2014 aviation tragedy, all 162 passengers and crew on board the AirAsia Indonesia AirBus 320 died when the aircraft stalled at high altitude during a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, to Singapore. The same plane, according to Foreign Correspondent, flew back and forth between Bali and Perth at least 70 times in the previous 12 months with the “rudder limiter fault.”

AirAsia Indonesia did not comment on the plane flying between Bali and Perth 70 times. Instead, it stressed that every aircraft operated was airworthy in accordance with Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) approved company maintenance manual and the AirBus maintenance manual.

The plane that crashed, said Foreign Correspondent, was not grounded to repair the rudder limiter fault despite having had the problem for at least 12 months and the pilots endured 23 alarms about it.

Fault messages, relating to the rudder limiter, were cleared on each occasion, explained the airline. “This followed satisfactory ECAM or BITE teat, in accordance with DGCA approved company maintenance manual and AirBus maintenance manual and TSM (trouble shooting manual).”