Official: AirAsia QZ8501 Jet Climbed Steeply and Stalled

Tuesday, January 20, 2015 at 11:56 PM ET

Verified

** AirAsia Airbus A320-200 (PK-AXC), the aircraft
involved in the crash, in April 2014. Credit: Oka
Sudiatmika (Wikimedia Commons)/CC-BY-SA 3.0**

Key Takeaways:

Radar data indicates the AirAsia A320 crashed due to a steep, "faster than normal" climb (over 6,000 feet per minute) that led to an aerodynamic stall.
The pilots had requested to climb to avoid large storms but were denied permission due to conflicting air traffic, disappearing from radar four minutes later.
All 162 people aboard were killed, and no distress signal was received prior to the jetliner plummeting into the Java Sea.

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An analysis of radar data from the AirAsia Airbus A320 that crashed near Indonesia late last month points to a steep climb and aerodynamic stall that caused the jetliner to go out of control and plummet into the Java Sea, a government official said.

Indonesian Transportation Secretary Ignasius Jonan said at a government hearing that the A320 climbed at more than 6,000 feet per minute. Citing radar data, he said the airplane, during its last minutes aloft, “went up faster than normal … then it stalled.”