AirAsia 8501 Stall Alarms 'Screaming' During Plunge; Capt. Iriyanto Reportedly Flew Same Plane With Faulty Computer Days Before Crash

An investigator looking into the black boxes and the data that was analyzed said alarms were heard screaming on the AirAsia 8501 when it crashed.

The reports come after the Indonesian minister said that AirAsia QZ 8501 which disappeared off the radar screen on Dec. 28 was climbing before it plummeted and vanished from radar screens at the Indonesian control tower.

"The warning [alarms] kept on screaming, and in the background, they [the pilot and co-pilot] were trying to recover the plane," the unidentified investigator told the WSJ. "But what they said wasn't clear." He added that the flight data recorder also indicated that stall warnings were going off.

Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee investigator confirmed in an AFP report that the pilots voices were drowned by the screaming alarms in the background.

A person close to the story said Captain Iriyanto flew the same Airbus A320-200 with the faulty Flight Augmentation Computer (FAC) a few days before the crash. However, this has not been confirmed.

According to Bloomberg News, instead of resetting the FAC, one of the pilots cut the power on the computer by pulling the circuit-breaker. This was not the normal procedure and it was reportedly carried out by the former military pilot Iriyanto and not the French co-pilot, Remy Plesel, who had control of the plane.

The minister for transportation, Mr. Ignasius Jonan told the Indonesian parliament that AirAsia 8501 was climbing about 6,000 ft a minute, which can only be done on a fighter plane. He added that commercial planes have a normal climbing speed of 1,000 to 2,000 ft.

Minister Jonan added that during the last contact with control towers, the AirAsia flight 8501 requested to climb from 32,000 feet to 38,000 ft. The co-pilot who was likely in control of the plane was probably trying to bypass clouds. However, the air traffic controllers denied permission for the request due to busy traffic. This was probably one reason why AirAsia was not authorized to fly on Sunday.

NBCNews reported AirAsia disappeared four minutes after the last conversation with the control tower. following the crash into the Java Sea. Reports say survey ships found 9 large objects like the AirAsia's black boxes, the fuselage and tail section.