The accident AirAsia plane crashed in Indonesia last December, causing 162 deaths was caused by a defective part of the Airbus A320-200 and the reaction of the drivers, researchers said on Tuesday in its final report.
The A320-200 took off on December 28 of the Indonesian city of Surabaya for Singapore and disappeared from radar half an hour later, having requested to fly at higher altitudes due to difficult weather conditions.
Repeated problems caused by the rudder control system, led the pilots to disengage the autopilot when the unit went through an area of bad weather, before losing control of the A320, said the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee.
According to the final report of Indonesian researchers, the autopilot was disconnected because warning systems were put in place because of a crack in a welding system that controls the rudder.
The plane then began to lose stability, after a series of maneuvers the pilots to try to reactivate the system.
"The subsequent actions of the crew caused the aircraft was uncontrollable," which caused a "prolonged" loss of height of the aircraft, which could not be straightened, the report says.
The analysis of the black boxes found among the wreckage, show that Airbus made an extremely brutal, abnormal rise for airliner before the prolonged loss of height and fall into the sea.
Among the 162 people aboard the plane were 155 Indonesians, the French co-driver Rémi Plesel three South Koreans, one Briton, one Singaporean and a Malaysian.
- Problems 23 times in a year -
For its part, the European manufacturer Airbus said it had "contributed to the Indonesian authorities all support orders and technical analysis, and studied the contents of the report and any recommendations".
The Airbus maintenance log mentions that the rudder control system (Rudder Travel Limiter) had problems 23 times in the previous 12 months, according to the report.
"Investigations reveal you some failure in the maintenance system, which led to the repetition of the unsolved problem" of the defective part is added.
The report of Indonesian researchers also noted that the black boxes did not indicate that weather conditions had affected the aircraft.
The accident occurred in an area near the Ecuador, where converge anticyclonic mass of hot and humid air, especially dangerous for its great weather instability.
Indonesia has a poor balance when it comes to air safety.
On August 1 airliner crashed in the mountains of Papua (east), killing its 54 occupants.
In late June, a unit of the Indonesian army air, carrying family members of military and civilian crashed in a suburb of the city of Medan (west), causing 142 deaths, including two dozen residents place.