AirAsia - Styrmannen var Pilot Flying

AirAsia crash: 'Co-pilot was flying plane'

This handout picture taken in 2013 and provided on 31 December 2014 by the Plesel family shows the co-pilot of the ill-fated Malaysian air carrier AirAsia flight QZ8501, Remy Emmanuel Plesel.

Mr Plesel is said to have been controlling the plane when it went down

The co-pilot of AirAsia Flight QZ8501, French national Remi Plesel, was controlling the plane before it crashed, say Indonesian investigators.

Authorities said this information came from the flight data recorder, which was retrieved along with the cockpit voice recorder earlier this month.

The plane was carrying 162 people from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore when it crashed into the Java Sea on 28 December.

Only 70 bodies have been recovered.

Mardjono Siswosuwarno, head investigator of Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSB), said the flight data recorder had provided a "pretty clear picture" of what happened in the flight's last moments.

Capt Plesel was in charge from take-off until the cockpit voice recording ends, he said, adding that this was common practice.

'Within limits'
Investigators said the plane ascended sharply before dropping, rising from 32,000ft (9,750m) to 37,400ft within 30 seconds, then dipping back to 32,000ft. The process took about three minutes.