Doomed QZ 8501 Accelerated Too Fast

21st Jan 2015

The doomed plane was said to be climbing at a dangerously high speed that caused its engines to fail. According to the radar data, the aircraft was clocked to have attained a speed of 6,000 feet per minute which is even beyond the safe limit for any type of aircraft including the fastest fighter jets to date.

Flight QZ 8501 left Surabaya's Juanda International Airport in the early morning on December 28, 2014 for its two-hour flight to Singapore with 155 passengers and 7 crew members.

The flight took off 5 minutes late at 5:35AM from Surabaya from its original scheduled departure time at 5:20AM. More than half an hour later, the pilot asked permission from the air traffic controller (ATC) to allow his plane to climb to an altitude of 38,000 feet to avoid clashing with the threatening storm clouds on its path.

The ground controller, however, delayed its permission at the time citing heavy traffic above. Two minutes later, the ATC tried to contact the pilot to grant his request to ascend to the desired altitude but failed. Three minutes later, the aircraft disappeared from the radar screen and subsequently lost its transponder signal.

The time delay of 2 minutes between the request and response time proved to be fatal as it ended into the tragic crash of the plane. In other words, the aircraft would have normally climbed at a normal speed should the ground controller sent its timely response and would have been able to reach its destination safely.

During the investigation, however, officials refused to say what exactly caused the aircraft to ascend so rapidly.

Preliminary investigation also showed that if the aircraft entered a stall after climbing such a steep scent in such a high speed, the air under its wings would have been disrupted causing it to lose a lift that resulted to a catastrophic consequence.

Investigators ruled out terrorism as the cause of the crash after listening to the recovered cockpit voice recorder (CVR). One of the investigators, Nurcahyo Utomo, from Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee, said that the voices they heard from the recorder only come from the two pilots having a normal conversation together.

Back to Top

SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Stay in touch with the recent news on schedule changes, new routes and latest promotions.

We won't pass on your details to any other company and you can unsubscribe whenever you want to.

Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Google Plus Google Plus RSS RSS