BBC Online :
AirAsia flight QZ8501 climbed too fast before stalling and crashing into the Java Sea with the loss of 162 lives, Indonesia’s transport minister says.
Ignasius Jonan told a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta the jet climbed at a speed of 6,000ft per minute.
No passenger or fighter jet would attempt to climb that fast, Indonesian media reported Jonan as saying.
There were no survivors when the jet crashed in the Java Sea on 28 December, en route from Surabaya to Singapore.
The Airbus A320-200 is thought to have encountered difficulties from an approaching storm.
Bodies are still being retrieved from the crash area where debris was scattered across the sea.
Citing radar data, Jonan said: “The plane, during the last minutes, went up faster than normal speed… then it stalled.”
“It is unlikely that a fighter jet would increase its flight level at a speed of 6,000ft per minute,” he was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post.
“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,” he told a House of Representatives commission.
A source familiar with the investigation’s initial findings told Reuters news agency last month that radar data appeared to show flight QZ8501 had made an “unbelievably” steep climb before it crashed, possibly pushing the jet beyond its limits.
Last week, the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were found.
The fuselage of the plane, believed to hold most of the remaining bodies, has also been located and search teams are now working out how to retrieve it. A preliminary report on the crash is expected on 28 January.
AirAsia flight QZ8501 climbed too fast before stalling and crashing into the Java Sea with the loss of 162 lives, Indonesia’s transport minister says.
Ignasius Jonan told a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta the jet climbed at a speed of 6,000ft per minute.
No passenger or fighter jet would attempt to climb that fast, Indonesian media reported Jonan as saying.
There were no survivors when the jet crashed in the Java Sea on 28 December, en route from Surabaya to Singapore.
The Airbus A320-200 is thought to have encountered difficulties from an approaching storm.
Bodies are still being retrieved from the crash area where debris was scattered across the sea.
Citing radar data, Jonan said: “The plane, during the last minutes, went up faster than normal speed… then it stalled.”
“It is unlikely that a fighter jet would increase its flight level at a speed of 6,000ft per minute,” he was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post.
“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,” he told a House of Representatives commission.
A source familiar with the investigation’s initial findings told Reuters news agency last month that radar data appeared to show flight QZ8501 had made an “unbelievably” steep climb before it crashed, possibly pushing the jet beyond its limits.
Last week, the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were found.
The fuselage of the plane, believed to hold most of the remaining bodies, has also been located and search teams are now working out how to retrieve it. A preliminary report on the crash is expected on 28 January.
