Indonesia: Pilots argued moment before death crash

Two pilots had been arguing moments before their Garuda Airlines passenger jet crashed last month at an Indonesian airport, leaving 21 people dead, a senior investigator said today.

The Boeing 737-400 burst into a fireball after overshooting the runway on landing at Yogyakarta airport on the main island of Java and skidding into a rice field on March 7.

Chief investigator Tatang Kurniadi said his preliminary findings would point to human error and “absent-mindedness” as the cause of the disaster.

“I worry that this accident came from the absent-mindedness from the cockpit,” Kurniadi said on the Nine Network interview.

The destroyed airliner’s black box audio recordings revealed the pilot and co-pilot were arguing over their speed and wing flap angles moments before the crash, Kurniadi said.

The captain had “enough experience” after flying more than 15,000 hours, while his first officer was a “young pilot” with 2,000 flying hours, Kurniadi said.

He said the co-pilot demanded the pilot “go around” – fly a circuit and make a second approach to land. The pilot proceeded to land so fast that the co-pilot could only partially extend the flaps supposed to slow it down, Nine reported.

Kurniadi and his investigation team are to finalise their results within a month.

The crash killed 21 people, while 119 others were able to escape through the exits of the burning jet.

It was the fourth accident involving a commercial jetliner in Indonesia since 2005. Experts say poor maintenance, rule-bending and a shortage of properly trained pilots may contribute to the sprawling country’s poor aviation safety record.