Dirk Barreveld

Air Crash Investigations - Cracked Solder Joint - the Crash of Indonesia Airasia Flight 8501 Dirk Barreveld

On 28 December 2014 an Airbus A320-216 aircraft registered as PK-AXC was cruising at 32,000 feet on a flight from Juanda Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia to Changi Airport, Singapore with total occupants of 162 persons. The Pilot in Command (PIC) acted as Pilot Monitoring (PM) and the Second in Command (SIC) acted as Pilot Flying (PF). The Flight Data Recorder (FDR) recorded that many master cautions activated following the failure of the Rudder Travel Limiter which triggered Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitoring (ECAM) message of AUTO FLT RUD TRV LIM SYS. The crew tried repeatedly to reset the computers but the autopilot and auto-thrust disengaged and the flight control reverted to Alternate Law. The investigation showed that the loss of electricity and the RTLU failure were caused by a cracked solder joint. All occupants of the plane were killed in the accident.