Sriwijaya Air crash : Preliminary report to be issued next month - KNKT

JAKARTA: The preliminary report on the investigation into the Sriwijaya Air jet that crashed on January 9, is expected to be announced this February.

Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), Flight Accident Investigation Sub-Committee head, Captain Nurcahyo Utomo said the investigation team is currently downloading and analysing data from the flight data recorder (FDR) of the Sriwijaya Air aircraft, retrieved on January 12.

"We hope to issue a preliminary report within 30 days after (the date of) the accident and thereafter inform the public of the findings, " he said in a statement here today.

He said KNKT hoped the search and rescue (SAR) team would also be able to locate the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) to correlate the data analysis obtained from the FDR.

The KNKT investigation team also consists of a four-member team from the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), four officers from Boeing, two from the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and a representative from General Electric, the aircraft engine manufacturer.

The Boeing 737-500 aircraft, carrying 62 passengers including 12 crew, was reported to have lost contact with the control tower shortly after departing Jakarta for Pontianak, at 2.36 pm (West Indonesia time), before crashing into the waters of Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands) off Jakarta.

-- BERNAMA