BANGKOK — A preliminary investigation into the crash in Indonesia last month of Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 has found that a difference in the level of thrust between the plane’s two engines may have contributed to the aircraft rolling over before it plunged into the Java Sea, investigators said Wednesday.
As in most crashes, the investigators are looking at a range of factors that may have contributed to the cause. They are assessing information from the flight data recorder and the plane’s maintenance records, but searchers have not recovered the cockpit voice recorder, which would tell them what the pilots were saying in their final minutes.
A difference in the level of thrust — the force of the engines that propels the aircraft forward — can make planes difficult to control. It is not clear, at this point, why that problem may have occurred during the Sriwijaya flight.
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