AirAsia Flight 8501 disappeared off radar, minutes after radio contact, on December 28, 2014, and prompted an intensive hunt for the remains. The plane, en route from Indonesia to Singapore, swallowed up 162 lives, including 16 children, in its fall to the Java Sea.
When the searchers finally found the black boxes, and other airplane wreckage, investigators were hopeful they would discover what happened. Initial reports blamed bad weather, but it turns out that wasn’t a big factor at all.
Almost a year later the final report says the problem was a crack in the soldering in a tiny electric device that controls the rudder. This prompted a warning signal to the pilots. It was not a big deal, or anything new. Over that year it happened 23 times on AirAsia flights without causing any major flight issues.
The real problem began when the crew decided they should try and fix it after the pilots received the fourth warning. In trying to fix it the crew reset the computer system, something that worked previously. Resetting the system, however, disabled the autopilot.
In the scramble to respond there was a miscommunication between the pilot and co-pilot. According to BBC’s review of the report, at one point the pilot instructed the co-pilot to descend and yet the plane continued to ascend. At one time the pilot and co-pilot were pushing their controls in opposite directions.
AirAsia’s Chief Executive Tony Fernandes responded with the promise to learn from tragedy.