That’s the big question on the mind of Indonesia’s Transportation Minister as investigators finish preparing the initial report into the crash last month of the Airbus A320-200 with 162 passengers on board.
“The question is why this plane suddenly climbed” from 32,000 feet to almost 38,000 feet “without any information and any warning,” Ignasius Jonan told CNN in an interview Monday.
Jonan said none of the other planes in the area experienced the turbulent weather patterns that led the pilot of QZ8501 to request a change of course and an increase in altitude shortly before it disappeared off radar.
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“We run around 1,000 flights a day and 7000 flights a week,” Jonan said. “And that’s a lot of flights in the air of Indonesia. So one crashed unfortunately. So I would suggest it’s not a big issue that can make everybody not fly in the air of Indonesia.”
Journalist Masrur Jamaluddin contributed to this report.
