Two Minutes Before The Fall, Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 Pilot Captain Afwan Said "Clear"

Sriwijaya Air aircraft. (Photo: Doc. Sriwijaya Air)

JAKARTA - President Director of the Indonesian Aviation Navigation Service Provider Corporation or Airnav Indonesia M Pramintohadi Sukarno said the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 aircraft had turned left 075 degrees to avoid the weather.

"At 14:38, SJ-182 asked the ATC (Air Traffic Controller) for 075 degrees on the grounds of the weather, and was allowed to be instructed to rise to an altitude of 11,000 feet," Pramintohadi said in a Working Meeting and Hearing Meeting with Commission V of the DPR in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Wednesday 3 February.

Then, Pramintohadi continued, at an altitude of 11,000 there was an AirAsia plane heading for the same route to Pontianak.

"When the ATC was allowed to be instructed to rise to an altitude of 11,000 feet, this was answered by the pilot 'clear'. Because at the same altitude there is the same plane that will also fly to Pontianak, namely AirAsia. At 10,600 feet, ATC instructed to go up to 13,000 feet and Sriwijaya SJ-182 still responded well, "he said.

He said that during the communication process with ATC from 14.36 WIB to 14.39 WIB there were no reports of abnormal aircraft conditions.

"Everything is going on normally," he said.

However, at 14:39, he continued, the SJ-182 was monitored on the ATC radar screen to turn left to the northwest, it should have been to the right 075 degrees. At 14.40, ATC confirmed direction, but there was no response and the target disappeared from the radar screen.

"ATC tried to call repeatedly up to 11 times assisted by other flights, Garuda flights to communicate with SJ 182 but there was no response. This happened from 14.36 to 14:40," he said.

On the same occasion, Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) Soerjanto Tjahjono said that the pilot had changed the autopilot mode from the one that was programmed beforehand.

"Then the plane began to slowly turn left until the plane finally dived down to hit the sea surface," he said.