The captain of the AirAsia Indonesia plane that crashed into the Java Sea in December left his seat for an unusual step when the aircraft spun out of control, Reuters reported, quoting two sources privy to the air crash investigation.

The sources revealed it was Indonesian captain Iriyanto who got out of the pilot's chair, rather than his less seasoned French co-pilot Remy Plesel who was steering the ill-fated aircraft at the time, the report said.

Like Us on Facebook

The co-pilot lost control of the plane and by the time the captain returned, it was too late to save it. Indonesia's top aviation safety investigator, Tatang Kurniadi, ruled out a delay in the captain taking back control but did not give more details. Jet maker Airbus declined to comment.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that repair problems on the plane's Flight Augmentation Computer and the pilots' reaction to them were the focus of the investigation.

After attempting to reset the device, pilots switched off a circuit breaker, Bloomberg reported yesterday. The powerless computer would not directly lead to a crash, but without it, a pilot can take an aircraft plane well beyond safety limits. In flight 8501's case, the junior pilot was left to steer the jet by hand, without the flight computer's intervention, in a difficult high altitude situation.

What was also found unusual is that the captain had to rise from his seat to pull the circuit breaker. The devices are on a wall panel at the back of the co-pilot and it is impossible or difficult to reach from the left side where the captain sits, experts said.

They added that shortly after turning off the flight computer, the co-pilot steered the plane into a sharp rise that led to the aircraft being stalled or losing lift. The captain eventually took back control, but a source familiar with the investigation said he was no longer in a place to recover immediately.

AirAsia said ruled out making a comment while the crash is still under investigation by Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee. 

TagsAirAsia, Flight 8501, Indonesia