FALLING at 12,000 feet per minute | Indonesia Air Asia flight 8501

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Big thanks to Selma for creating the thumbnail for this video!

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In the early morning of December 28th, 2014, 156 passengers boarded an Airbus A320 operating as Indonesia Air Asia flight 8501, at Juanda International airport in Surabaya, Indonesia. They were bound for Singapore’s Changi airport, a two and half hour journey. But a perfect storm of human fallibility, deficiencies in pilot training, and mechanical error would come together to ensure that the flight never made it to its destination.

This short documentary uses publicly available sources to describe the events which led up to the crash of Indonesia Air Asia flight 8501, and details the reasons behind it.

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All music licensed through Epidemic Sound:

Final report:

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00:00 Intro and pilot backgrounds
01:18 Electric storm
01:48 Ad
02:43 Airbourne
03:53 The first warning
05:11 Thunderstorms
06:02 Warnings
07:00 Nuisance ECAM warnings
07:49 An "alternate" solution
08:22 Things go wrong
10:28 Stall
11:07 Contradictory inputs
12:42 Last ditch effort
13:19 Initial response
13:45 Investigation - Flight Data Recorder and CVR
14:50 Psychology and training
15:38 Captain's response
16:24 First Officer's response
17:03 Lessons and improvements
18:17 Ad
18:35 Thank you

[GreenDotAviation]

link to download the game and get your exclusive bonus now. See you in battle!

[lacrossehilda]

I have a friend who died in this plane. She was found still strapped on her chair with her two siblings in the seabed. She probably didn't feel anything due to the high gravity from the nosedive.

Looking back at her instagram, it feels surreal that i get older but she's still stuck in time in 2014. It's really really sad

[alexd]

I have seen many youtube videos about this tradegy on other channels but the level of detail you go into and the psychology angle you take is unmatched. The fact airbus deemed upset recovery as a non-requirement is shocking.

[EvanBear]

I am so upset at how many opportunities those pilots had to stop their actions and recover their plane.

[superweedenjoyer]

Man... cruising at 32k feet to ascending 11k feet per minute and then falling out of the sky into the ocean all in 4 minutes. I can't imagine how terrifying this was for the passengers. RIP to the souls lost on this flight

[leslie]

That's crazy that the first officer did exactly what his compatriot FO Bonin did on AF 447 by not following procedures but acting out of instinct and emotion. To me the overriding theme here is no matter what the automation, the skills and training of airmen need to be constantly improved and worked on, for situations just like this.
Great video as usual. 👍🏽

[eddymison]

They should include this into stall check list "Check if FO pulling his stick up".

[change_your_oil_regularly]

40 seconds?! That's a bloody lifetime whilst plummeting at 12, 000ft/pm

[dubvalver]

crazy they can find a cracked solder joint after the plane has been on the bottom of the sea but not when its in the service hanger. the snowball from this tiny bit of solder is incredible.

[Xerra]

I just hate how avoidable this accident was. Truly a facepalm in all sorts of ways. Yet the moment I saw the stall being visualized it kind of makes sense how the FO had a death grip on the controls desperately trying to save the plane that he's responsible for flying... and due to the panic he never realized he's actually dooming it.

[dlcpack]

always shocks me how much of an impact psychology and crew communications has on fight, rip to all passengers and crew

[autumnleaves]

Reminds me a lot of Air France 447 in June 2009. Amazed that "upset" recovery wasn't part of the training for Airbus flight crew. I really feel that this crash was totally avoidable, as was AF 447.

[iitool]

Another captivating video. It’s easy to judge with a calm eye but the startle factor of an unexpected upset can so easily throw a pilot into paralysis and into becoming strapped to a plummeting aluminium coffin. This is the exact type of scenario we train over and over to recover from. This is one of the times where well practiced, muscle memory instinct, should kick in. It doesn't matter whether it’s a $100mil highly automated modern jet or a Cessna 150 tail dragger... rudder against rotation, nose down to break the stall, allow the aircraft to start flying again, moderate the dive so you don't overspeed, watch out for secondary stalls as you pull up.

In fact, sometimes doing nothing can be the safest choice! Taking a moment to absorb your current situation then letting your intuition and training kick in can make the difference between life and death. This highlights the decisions you make early on in your flying career about good "airmanship" and setting a high standard for yourself. This will filter down the road to this very type of incident where it will be the difference between becoming an anecdote or an obituary.

You are building a strong brand here Emmett! You are right on point for responsible, mature aviation content that’s about reflection and learning. It won’t be long till you're being sponsored by Foreflight or Bose aviation!

[trim]

I always had this issue as a flight instructor. Too many pilots are now taught to “takeoff” and “land” many pilots and my friends today have no idea how to actually fly an aircraft but rather put it in autopilot and hope it goes well.

[joe]

Thanks! Always looking forward to your videos. Really appreciate the consistent quality

[yggdrasil]

OMG a virtual repeat of AF447. Unbelievable. I heard about this Air Asia crash but never knew the details. Holy moley, surely after a tragedy like AF447 you would think that a second accident of the same type would be impossible.

[tehdusto]

those pilots really did everything they could to crash that plane

[tipptop]

What a series of unfortunate events, its amazing to think that the tech issue was going on for months without replacement of the computer. Its also easy to say why didn't the crew notice they were counter acting each others inputs, but I guess their aircraft was all over the place and its difficult to be logical in that atmosphere

[dammitamber]

I don’t know why I love this type of content. I’m not particularly into aviation stuff, I don’t follow this stuff, but it’s so fascinating. Thanks for reading out the information instead of using text. Really helps me keep up since I love to listen in the background.

[pewpewpewx]

Just like air France flight 447 one pilote pushing down the other pulling up Rip to all of them