Sriwijaya Air SJ182 Final Report Findings

November 10, 2022

Today, the KNKT (Komite Nasional Keselamatan Transportasi) has released the long-awaited final report for the fatal crash of Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 that occured in early January 2021. Final reports of an air crash are supposed to be released exactly one year after the incident under normal circumstances, but this report had been delayed due to COVID-19.

On 9 January 2021, SJ182 crashed shortly after departure from Jakarta, en route to Pontianak. The flight was operated by PK-CLC, a Boeing 737-500. The cause of the incident is due to a failure in the auto-throttle system, which caused an asymmetrical thrust event, which then resulted in an aircraft upset. The pilots did not overcome the upset issue, and the plane subsequently fell to its demise.

According to findings by the KNKT, the issue with the autothrottle had been reported 65 TIMES BEFORE THE ACCIDENT, but was not appropriately fixed by the maintenance crew as a working auto-throttle is not required for an aircraft to take-off because pilots can control the thrust levers manually. In addition, the pilot was not properly trained on upset prevention and recovery training by the airline, which further worsened the situation. The investigators too performed simulator testing with similar parameters, and managed to successfully recover the aircraft, proving that pilot error was a factor in the preventable crash.

The KNKT stated:

There were several indications available that the pilots could have checked to identify the aircraft anomalies, such as engine parameters, thrust levers position, and roll angle.

In conclusion, the SJ182 crash was caused by inadequate pilot training and poor maintenance by Sriwijaya Air. This accident adds on to the list of 104 civilian airliner accidents with over 1,300 related fatalities since 1945, ranking it as the most dangerous place to fly in Asia.

© 2022 Planeopedia
Written by: Sohail Sawlani
No copyright infringement intended.