One-year anniversary of AirAsia flight’s crash marked

By Ainur Rohmah

JAKARTA

Family members of the 162 people on board an AirAsia flight that crashed into the Java Ocean last year gathered Monday to mark the one-year anniversary of the tragedy.

Around 300 people prayed for the victims during a closed event also attended by AirAsia management, officials from the Search and Rescue Agency and National Transportation Safety Committee in remembrance of those who died on Flight QZ8501, according to Metro TV.

Bambang Soelistyo, Search and Rescue Agency chief, told Tribunnews.com that Flight QZ8501 had been a lesson for all parties including his agency, the police force and military, and airlines around Indonesia.

"We [agency teams] received a lesson on how to evacuate casualties at sea," he said, referring to a 79-day operation in the Karimata Strait. "There should be improvements in the whole of transportation after this, both air and sea."

Some of the grieving relatives, however, expressed their dissatisfaction with the investigations into the incident, as well as the handling of the tragedy.

Joe Shien Shien said she was disappointed with AirAsia’s management, accusing them of not providing official information about why the plane had crashed and citing different theories that had circulated about the incident.

"First the management said the accident was due to natural factors and the negligence of the pilots,” Metro TV quoted Shien – who lost her brother, his wife and their two sons – as saying.

“But those claims are in contrast to the results of the investigation by the National Transportation Safety Committee.”

Earlier this month, the Committee revealed its findings that the flight had suffered from problems with its rudder system, to which the pilots responded by resetting a circuit breaker and cutting off power to the system so they could manually control the plane, which then stalled.

Shien criticized AirAsia on other grounds, including not issuing what she considered a formal apology.

"The engine was damaged. And please note, the flight schedule was changed on Dec. 28, 2015,” she said, referring to allegations that the airline did not have a license to fly from Surabaya city to Singapore the day Flight QZ8501 went missing – claims AirAsia has denied.

Hendri Sucipto, who lost four family members on the flight, also criticized the alleged lack of discussion about the cause of the accident, also saying that the promised compensation had not been fully distributed.

AirAsia reportedly began paying out compensation to passengers’ families – some of whom Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority said were entitled to up to Rp 1.25 billion (around $99,000) in insurance per passenger -- in February.

Sunu Widiyatmoko, CEO of AirAsia’s Indonesia subsidiary, declined to comment Monday on the cause of the accident.

"There is already a team of experts and independent investigators dealing with this case," he said, referring to the National Transportation Safety Committee.

Widyatmoko added that compensation issues would be discussed in another forum to honor the victims.

On Dec. 28 last year, Flight QZ8501 disappeared with radar data showing the Airbus A320 climbing at an abnormally high rate after the pilot requested to divert around bad weather – which the Committee’s investigation has ruled out as a factor in the crash.

Two days after contact was lost, rescue teams found the plane’s wreckage.

Of the 155 passengers and seven crew on board, the bodies of 106 have been recovered.