News.com (Australia) "Garuda pilots 'argued before crash'"

The pilots of a Garuda airliner that crashed in Indonesia, killing 21 people including 5 Australians, were arguing moments before the accident, a senior Indonesian investigator has said. Garuda Airlines Boeing 747-400 caught fire after overshooting the runway at Yogyakarta airport in Indonesia on March 7.

The chief Indonesian investigator Tatang Kurniadi today said the plane's black box recordings show the pilot and co-pilot were involved in an argument over the plane's speed and wing flaps moments before the crash. He said his preliminary findings would point to human error, and "absent mindedness" as the cause of the disaster.

"Absent mindedness - I worry that this accident came from the absent-mindedness from the cockpit," Mr Kurniadi said on Channel 9's Sunday program. The captain and first officer were flying together for the first time, he said. "The co-pilot is a young pilot with just 2000 flying hours and the captain, experienced, having enough experience, more than 15,000 flying hours," the investigator said. Mr Kurniadi said the black box revealed the captain and first officer were arguing just before the plane came down, with the co-pilot demanding the pilot "go around" and delay the landing.