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Sriwijaya flight had throttle ‘anomaly’ before crash, early report finds
The throttle levers in the cockpit of Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 had an “anomaly” before the plane plunged into the Java Sea, but the exact cause of the crash remains unclear.
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Officers from the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) inspect part of a turbine recovered from Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 on Wednesday at the Jakarta International Container Terminal in North Jakarta. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he throttle levers in the cockpit of Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 had an “anomaly” before the plane plunged into the Java Sea last month, a preliminary report has found, but the exact cause of the crash remains unclear.
The irregularity in the throttle record was discovered through the flight data recorder, which was retrieved by search and rescue divers on Jan. 12, three days after the crash. The issue occurred as the aircraft climbed past 8,150 feet.
“Both throttle levers showed an anomaly. The [lever controlling the] left [engine] was moving backward too far, while the right one was not moving at all – like it was stuck,” National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) investigator Nurcahyo Utomo said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Investigators also found that the autothrottle system had been unserviceable on at least two occasions prior to the ill-fated flight but that the system had been repaired before the flight commenced.
The KNKT has not determined whether the throttle lever abnormalities indicate that the autothrottle system malfunctioned. Nurcahyo noted that the autothrottle itself had 13 components that might have influenced the levers’ movement.
The KNKT has also been unable to determine whether the pilots tried to correct the possible error by using manual controls. “Hopefully, after we find the cockpit voice recorder [CVR], we can learn what was happening and what they did,” Nurcahyo said.
Read also: Sriwijaya Air crash adds to troubling safety record
