Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501

Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Indonesia AirAsia from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. On 28 December 2014, the Airbus A320 flying the route crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 162 of the people on board. When search operations ended in March 2015, only 116 bodies had been recovered. As of 2026, this is the only fatal accident involving AirAsia and its affiliates.

In December 2015, the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT or NTSC) released a report concluding that a non-critical malfunction in the rudder control system prompted the captain to perform a non-standard reset of the on-board flight control computers. Control of the aircraft was subsequently lost, resulting in a stall and uncontrolled descent into the sea. Miscommunication between the two pilots was cited as a contributing factor.

Accident

Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 was a scheduled flight from Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, to Singapore on Sunday, 28 December 2014. It was scheduled to depart Juanda International Airport at 05:20 Western Indonesian Time (WIB, UTC+7) and arrive at Singapore Changi Airport at 08:30 Singapore Standard Time (SST, UTC+8). The aircraft took off at 05:35 WIB and reached its cruising altitude at flight level (FL) 320 at 32000 ft fourteen minutes later. It joined air route M635, heading north-west out over the western Java Sea. The plane was in contact with Jakarta air traffic control (ATC).

The flight was normal until 06:00 when an electronic centralised aircraft monitor (ECAM) memo was displayed, along with a master caution light, to indicate a fault with the rudder limiter system. Captain Iriyanto read the actions for fixing this failure, and rebooted the aircraft's two Flight Augmentation Computers (FACs). The same fault recurred at 06:09, and the captain fixed it in the same way.

At 06:11, the pilots turned fifteen degrees to the left to avoid inclement weather, and contacted Jakarta ATC to request a climb to FL 380 at 38000 ft for the same reason. The controller could not give immediate permission for this due to other aircraft in the vicinity, and instructed them to wait.

While the pilots were waiting for permission to climb, the rudder limiter problem occurred for a third time, and for the third time the captain reset the FAC computers. When the memo displayed for the fourth time, Captain Iriyanto decided to reset the FAC circuit breakers (CB). He had previously seen this action being performed by a ground engineer, and believed that it was acceptable to do so in flight.

The FAC circuit breakers were reset at 06:16:45, with immediate consequences, as this action not only reset the FAC computers but also disconnected the autopilot and autothrottle, and the flight control law changed from Normal to Alternate. It allowed the aircraft to roll to the left, and by the time First Officer Plesel reacted to this it was banked at 54 degrees.

Plesel, possibly spatially disoriented due to the roll sensation, over-corrected twice: first by making a sharp right bank input and then a sharp left bank input. After that, at 06:17, Plesel made a nose-up input on his side-stick, causing the aircraft to enter a steep climb at a 24-degree nose-up pitch. The captain gave a confusing direction to "pull down", which "bears an internal contradiction as 'pull' suggests up, while 'down' means down." In just 54 seconds, the aircraft climbed from 32,000 feet to 38500 ft, exceeding a climb rate of 10,000 ft/min. It then entered a stall, at around 06:17:40, descending at a rate of up to 20000 ft/min. The aircraft also began a turn to the left, forming at least one complete circle before disappearing from radar at 06:18:44. At 06:20:35, the flight data recorder stopped recording. The CVR stopped recording one second later, at 06:20:36. The aircraft crashed into the Java Sea and was destroyed. All 162 people on board were killed instantly upon impact.

Its last recorded position was over the Java Sea, Karimata Strait between the islands of Belitung and Kalimantan. The aircraft crashed in the Java Sea, Karimata Strait between the islands of Belitung and Borneo. The cockpit voice recorder captured multiple warnings, including a stall warning, sounding in the cockpit during the final minutes of the flight. No distress signal was sent from the aircraft. Search and rescue (SAR) operations were activated by the Indonesia National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) from the Pangkal Pinang office.