The Ivory Tower

Information on the cause of the Sukhoi crash into Mount Salak is slowly emerging. It is clear that air traffic controllers may not have provided the right guidance to a pilot unfamiliar with local conditions. And there seems to be an effort to conceal these errors. Tempo obtained a recording of the final communication from the Sukhoi Superjet 100.

June 20, 2012

Pilot Aleksandr Yablontsev sent word to air traffic controllers in the East Terminal of Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Cengkareng. It was 2:24pm on Wednesday, May 9. He was piloting the Sukhoi Superjet 100 with registration number RA 36801 out of Halim Perdanakusuma airbase, East Jakarta, 12 minutes earlier.

One personnel in Cengkarenga senior air traffic controller, who in the interest of privacy will be referred to as 'Nreplied, RA36801 radar contact, m

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