JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia's National Commission on Safety Transportation says human error caused a Russian-made passenger jetliner to crash into a volcano seven months ago during a demonstration flight, killing all 45 people aboard.
Commission Chairman Tatang Kurniadi said Tuesday that data recovered from the Sukhoi Superjet-100 indicated the pilot in command was chatting with a potential buyer in the cockpit just before the plane slammed into Mount Salak in May.
Kurniadi says 38 seconds before the crash, the plane issued warnings saying “pull up, terrain ahead” and later “avoid terrain,” but the warnings were ignored.
The Superjet is Russia’s first new model of passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago and is intended to help resurrect its aerospace industry.
