AirAsia Pilot’s Final Request Was Met by Two-Minute Radio Silence

Indonesian soldiers carry coffins containing victims of the AirAsia flight QZ8501 crash at the Indonesian Air Force Military Base Operation Airport on Dec. 31, 2014 in Surabaya, Indonesia.(Photographer: Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images)

Story by Bloomberg
Written by Herdaru Purnomo and Kyunghee Park

It took about two minutes for air-traffic control to respond to AirAsia Bhd. (AIRA)’s ill-fated Flight 8501 when the pilot requested permission to elevate the plane, according to Indonesia’s air navigation operator.

In the final communication from the plane, one of the pilots asked to climb to as high as 38,000 feet, said Wisnu Darjono, director at AirNav Indonesia, citing a transcript of the conversation from the National Transport Safety Committee. Air traffic control authorized the plane to ascend only to 34,000 feet about two minutes later, after which contact was lost, Darjono said.

Accuweather.com data shows there were storms along the path of the plane, which Indonesia’s air transport director has said was flying at 32,000 feet.

Air-traffic control “couldn’t immediately give permission to fly at 38,000 feet because checks needed to be made to see if there were other planes nearby,” Darjono said in a phone interview. The “pilot didn’t reply.”

Radar data appeared to show that AirAsia made an “unbelievably” steep climb before it crashed, possibly pushing it beyond the plane’s limits, Reuters reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the probe’s initial findings.

As divers seek to find the plane’s black boxes, those final minutes may provide crucial clues as to what caused the Airbus Group NV (AIR) A320 plane to crash on Dec. 28 with 162 people on board into the ocean near Pangkalan Bun, about 600 miles southeast of Singapore. Rescuers started pulling bodies and debris from the water yesterday.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-31/pilot-s-final-request-was-met-by-two-minute-radio-silence.html