'I cannot imagine how I am going to listen to his last words': Agony of AirAsia crash investigator who was friends with the pilot and must now examine its black box
- Black box
voice recording of crashed AirAsia jet QZ8501 retrieved from sea - Investigators to examine contents of box, including last words of the pilot
- One of the experts, Nurcahyo Utomo knew Captain Iriyanto personally
- He reveals 'I cannot imagine how I am going to listen to his last words'
- Plane crashed on flight from Surabaya to Singapore killing all 162 on board
Listening to the last words of the pilot of the crashed AirAsia flight will be one of the most challenging tasks for an Indonesian investigator - because he knew the captain personally.
Nurcahyo Utomo will be one of the experts examining recordings made by Captain Iriyanto and admits 'I cannot imagine how I am going to listen to his last words.'
Mr Nurcahyo, an investigator with Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee , says he will have goosebumps when carrying out his job, just as he has when hearing the last words of other pilots.
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Indonesian investigators are set to listen to the last words of Captain Iriyanto, pictured, after the black box for flight QZ8501 was recovered by divers
Indonesian army and naval personnel look at the flight data recorder that was in the first black box
Nurcahyo Utomo will be one of the experts examining recordings made by Captain Iriyanto (pictured) and has said 'I cannot imagine how I am going to listen to his last words.'
‘Listening to recordings from black boxes over and over again can be disturbing and requires utmost mental strength,' Mr Nurcahyo admitted as he prepared to join other experts in analysing the data from the jet’s voice recorder, which has been recovered from the bottom of the Java Sea.
‘Listening to the playback of a black box involved in a crash is not like listening to music or a discussion.
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‘We are listening to a recording that represents the last moments before the crash and it is disturbing,’ he told the Indonesian website Viva.co.id.
‘There are times where the investigators would get unnerved listening to the recording.’
What was chilling, he said was hearing final words like ‘Allahuakhbar (God is Great).’
Mr Nurcahyo spoke as experts prepared to examine data from the voice recorder and the aircraft’s flight data recorder - instruments that they expect will tell them exactly why flight QZ8501 crashed on a flight from Surabaya to Singapore two weeks ago, killing all 162 on board.
Chief of the National Transportation Safety Board Tatang Kurniadi (left) speaks to the media while showing the flight data recorder that was retrieved from the first black box
Speaking of the final words of pilots, Mr Nurcahyo said: ‘It is as if we can feel them…
‘Allahuakhbar, Allahuakhbar…were the last words said before they died.’
He admitted that despite having a heavy heart, he and his colleague could not escape from listening to the final words of Captain Iriyanto.
‘Hearing the last conversation would be the key to revealing the cause of the AirAsia crash.
‘We will know what really happened from the conversations between pilot and co-pilot prior to the crash.’
But what was particularly painful for him, he said, was the fact that Captain Iriyanto was the man who taught him to fly.
The cockpit voice recorder was recovered by divers on Tuesday and is being sent to the nation's capital to be studied.
It has emerged that salvage experts believe the AirAsia jet which crashed into the sea with 162 people on board exploded on impact.
The flight data recorder that was in the first retrieved black box is placed on a table for the media to see
Still dripping with water, military personnel pull out the flight data recorder of the ill-fated AirAsia Flight 8501 that crashed in the Java Sea
Suryadi Supriyadi, a director with the Indonesian national search and rescue agency, suggested initial analysis of the wreckage showed that the aircraft shattered because the cabin had not depressurised when it slammed into the water, Sky reported.
Mr Supriyadi said: 'The cabin was pressurised and before the pressure of the cabin could be adjusted, it went down - boom. That explosion was heard in the area.'
A team of navy divers earlier on Monday retrieved the flight data recorder from the wreckage. Divers have also found the second black box, but they have not yet been able to free it from debris on the floor of the Java Sea.
Associated Press reported that Mr Supriyadi confirmed the cockpit voice recorder was located on Monday just hours after officials announced that the other black box - the data flight recorder - had been brought to the surface.
He said the second black box was stuck under heavy wreckage, and divers are now working to lift it.
The flight recorder monitors data such as airspeed and the aircraft's heading, while the cockpit voice recorder stores radio transmissions and sounds from within the cockpit.
Sky's Beijing Correspondent Mark Stone said: 'Experts will be looking at data which recorded the performance of the engines or other instrument in the cockpit. All of that will be taken to Jakarta and analysed in great detail.
'The conversations the crew had with ground control units in Singapore and Indonesia are already known, but they do not know what conversations took place on the flight deck.
Indonesian military police carry the flight data recorder through Iskandar air base in Pangkalan Bun, Central Borneo
'They know there was no Mayday issued and the cockpit recorder, when it is found, could reveal why.'
Searchers began zeroing in on the sites a day earlier after three Indonesian ships picked up intense pings from the area. The flight data recorder was brought to the surface by four divers early on Monday morning.
The cockpit voice and flight data recorders are vital to understanding what brought Flight 8501 down on December 28, killing all 162 people on board.
Officials said last week when the recorders were found they would be taken to Jakarta for analysis.
It could take up to two weeks to download data, investigators said, although the information could be accessed in as little as two days if the devices are not badly damaged.
The tail section of the AirAsia aircraft was pulled from the sea off the coast of central Borneo on Saturday.
A photograph emerged on Sunday of an AirAsia search team member appearing to pose in front of the downed jet's tail.
Military policemen carry the flight data recorder of AirAsia QZ8501 away to be evaluated
Indonesian officers take the plane's flight data recorder and move it into a large plastic container
In the picture taken on board a ship, the searcher looks to be smiling while a colleague holds up a smart phone to snap the moment.
The man standing in front of the tail, which was pulled from the sea off the coast of Indonesian island Borneo two weeks after flight QZ8501 crashed, is wearing a uniform.
Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control in bad weather on December 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.
None of the 162 people on the aircraft survived. So far 48 bodies have been recovered from the site, including at least two still strapped into their seats.
Many of the other passengers are believed to be inside the wreckage of the plane's main cabin, which has not been located, due to strong currents moving debris around.
At two weeks, most corpses will sink, said Anton Castilani, head of Indonesia's disaster identification victim unit, and there are already signs of serious decomposition.
'Divers have reached the tail part but ... the visibility was below one metre so they only managed to retrieve various debris,' said Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia's search and rescue agency.
'Now we are waiting for the speed of the current to ease. If it gets calmer later, they will go back to do another dive to determine whether the black boxes remained in the tail or were detached,' Mr Soelistyo said.
The AirAsia aircraft's flight data recorder in its black box is unloaded by Indonesian Air Force flight crew
Airbus investigators examines part of the tail of AirAsia QZ8501
Indonesian officers carry a part of the tail section of the AirAsia plane away to be scrutinized
Mr Marsma Supriyadi, operations coordinator for the National Search and Rescue Agency said earlier on Sunday a sonar scan had revealed an object measuring 10 metres by four metres by 2.5 metres on the sea floor.
'They suspect it is the body of the plane. There is a big possibility that the black box is near the body of the plane,' Mr Supriyadi said in the town of Pangkalan Bun, the base for the search effort on Borneo.
'If it is the body of the plane then we will first evacuate the victims. Secondly we will search for the black box.'
Families of the victims whose bodies have been recovered held funeral ceremonies to lay their loved ones to rest.
Family members and friends buried their bodies and lay flowers over the graves, bringing photos of the victims to lay at memorial sites.
The recovery operation comes as news that the families of the victims of the flight will be offered $US100,000 in compensation by the airline.
An offer of $US24,000 was presented to family members, who were given a draft letter from AirAsia, which detailed its initial compensation deal, CNN reported.
Indonesian workers survey the remains of the tail of the AirAsia QZ8501 aircraft during the recovery mission at Panglima Utar Kumai Harbour in Kumai, Central Borneo
Crew members of the Crest Onyx ship untie parts of the tail section of AirAsia Flight OZ8501 at Kumai port in Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia
Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Indroyono Soesilo (front) reveals information about three ships detecting signals from crashed AirAsia Flight 8501
Family members have been left confused about the letter's wording and raising issue with the airline approaching families separately in relation to compensation, the Wall Street Journal reported.
But Indonesia AirAsia's director of safety and security defended the isolated discussions to The Strait Times on Tuesday, saying: 'We respect that [some] families are still hoping to see that their relatives survived, so we offered [compensation first] to those whose family members have been identified'.
Captain Raden Achmad Sadikin added the airlines would be compensating families in line with Indonesian policy.
According to the regulatory body that is responsible for Indonesia's finance sector, agencies that insure airlines were liable to give 1.25 billion rupiah for every one of the 155 passengers including 315 million rupiah to 750 million rupiah for the 25 passengers who bought flight insurance.
Just before losing contact, the pilot told air traffic control he was approaching threatening clouds, but was denied permission to climb to a higher altitude because of heavy air traffic. No distress signal was issued.
Indonesian aviation authorities have denied officials took bribes to allow airlines to alter their flight schedules amid allegations some were paid to approve unscheduled take-offs, including that of crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501.
AirNav Indonesia, the country's navigation operator, says its employees are clean and there is 'no big money' involved in relation to airlines altering unapproved flight schedules, The Straits Times reports.
The recovered wreckage of the ill-fated AirAsia Flight 8501 that crashed in the Java Sea are covered by tarps at Kumai port in Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia
A member of Indonesian Research and Technology Application Agency points at the coordinates where signals of AirAsia flight QZ8501 black box were detected on Saturday
An Indonesian member of the National Transportation Safety Board talks with investigators as they look over the recovered tail section of AirAsia QZ8501
Seven officials, including three from AirNav Indonesia, have now been suspended over suspected links to unapproved schedules, including AirAsia's fatal flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore on Sunday, December 28.
AirAsia Flight QZ8501 only has approval to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
It did not have approval to fly the route on Sundays, which is when the flight crashed after losing contact with traffic controllers over the Java Sea.
The seven people suspended in the wake of the plane crash include two from the transport ministry, two from Surabaya's international airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I, and three from AirNav Indonesia.
Separately on Sunday, a DHC-6 Twin Otter operated by Indonesia's Trigana Air crashed on landing at Enarotali Airport in Paniai, Papua.
Strong winds caused the aircraft to roll over, domestic news website Detik.com reported, with no injuries to the three crew members on board.
The plane was not carrying any passengers.
Investigators take a close look at part of the AirAsia aircraft's tail section aboard the Crest Onyx ship
The tail section of the the AirAsia plane is is taken away on Sunday aboard the Crest Onyx ship
In the picture taken on board a ship, the searcher looks to be smiling while a colleague holds up a smart phone to snap the moment
The man standing in front of the tail, which was pulled from the sea off the coast of Indonesian island Borneo two weeks after flight QZ8501 crashed, is wearing a uniform
An Indonesian transport safety investigator told Reuters on Monday that there was no evidence to support the theory that the AirAsia airliner exploded before hitting water two weeks ago.
'There is no data to support that kind of theory,' said Santoso Sayogo, an investigator at the National Transportation Safety Committee.
Suryadi Supriyadi, operations coordinator at the National Search and Rescue Agency, earlier told reporters that the wreckage indicated the jet 'experienced an explosion' before impact due to a significant change in air pressure.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2907975/I-imagine-going-listen-words-Agony-AirAsia-crash-investigator-friends-pilot-examine-black-box.html#ixzz3OxCpfJE3
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