By Andy Pasztor in Los Angeles And Ben Otto in Jakarta
Once search teams start bringing up remnants of AirAsia Flight
8501 from underwater, Indonesian authorities are expected to ask
U.S. experts to join the crash probe, according to government and
industry officials from both countries.
No such formal request has been made by Indonesia, these
officials said, and the final decision still could keep American
experts on the sidelines. But there has been ongoing communication
between the American and Indonesian sides, and various recent signs
indicate the situation could change quickly.
In the wake of a typical airliner crash, representatives of the
engine manufacturer routinely are requested to participate in the
investigation, along with the regulatory agency responsible for
overseeing testing and safety analysis of the engines installed on
the accident plane.
Yet so far, that isn't the case in the high-profile AirAsia
probe. Neither the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, which
certified the jetliner's engines, nor General Electric Co., part of
the joint venture that built them, is on the multinational probe,
which includes French and Indonesian entities.
Experts from Singapore and the U.K. also have pitched in by
providing technical advice or equipment.
Engines of the Airbus A320, which went down in the Java Sea in
stormy weather on Dec. 28, were manufactured by CFM International,
a 50-50 partnership between General Electric and the Snecma unit of
France's Safran SA.
Some air-safety experts are puzzled by the delay in seeking U.S.
assistance. "That surprises me," said Mark Rosenker, a former NTSB
chairman and vice chairman, who dealt with Indonesian officials
when the board participated in the probe of an Adam Air jet that
crashed on a domestic flight in January 2007. This time, according
to Mr. Rosenker, "I also would have thought we would be part of the
investigation."
On Wednesday, a General Electric spokesman said "we fully expect
to join the investigative team" once wreckage is brought to the
surface, at which point the company "expects to be participating
with the NTSB" to help Indonesian officials dissect the crash that
killed all 162 people aboard the AirAsia plane.
"We are in communication with Indonesia," company spokesman Rick
Kennedy added, and "we have told them we're ready to go."
Through an email, an NTSB spokeswoman said board officials
"responded to the initial notification" of the accident, "offered
any technical assistance that may be needed" and are "awaiting
recovery of wreckage and/or recorders for further decisions."
Earlier this week, before search teams identified a portion of
the plane's tail section in roughly 100-feet-deep water, the head
of the probe signaled he was moving toward asking for U.S.
participation. In an interview, Mardjono Siswosuwarno, the lead
investigator from Indonesia's National Transportation Safety
Committee, said U.S. experts would join at a later stage due to
their involvement with the engines.
His boss, Tatang Kurniadi, chief of the safety committee, said
in a separate interview that at some point he also expects the U.S.
will become part of the probe.
During a news briefing Wednesday on an unrelated topic, U.S.
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the NTSB was "taking the
lead with the efforts with the Indonesian government." Federal
Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta told reporters
"everyone in aviation is monitoring" the AirAsia crash, looking for
lessons learned.
Indonesian's decision to hold off enlisting U.S. help is
especially puzzling for air-safety experts not involved in the
AirAsia matter because the NTSB participated in a series of
lower-profile Indonesian probes over the years. Those included a
serious incident in September 2013 involving a European-built,
propeller-powered ATR regional jet that experienced severe
vibrations while descending toward the airport in Makassar. U.S.
experts were given a role because the plane's propellers were
certified by U.S. regulators.
American and Indonesian safety watchdogs have had their share of
disagreements, however, stretching back to 2000. That is when the
chairman of the NTSB publicly criticized Indonesian authorities for
failing to determine the likely cause of the crash of a Silk Air
Boeing 737, which killed all 102 aboard after plunging into a river
from cruise altitude. In a dissenting opinion, NTSB officials
determined, for themselves, that the only reasonable explanation
that fit the available data was that the captain purposely pushed
the plane's nose down starting at 35,000 feet and kept the jet in a
fatal dive, disregarding repeated automated warnings.
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com and Ben Otto at
ben.otto@wsj.com
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