First officer flying AirAsia jet at time of crash

Indonesian soldiers and rescue members carry coffins of passengers, who were onboard AirAsia Flight QZ8501, at Iskandar airbase tarmac in Pangkalan Bun, January 19, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

JAKARTA - The French first officer of an AirAsia passenger jet that crashed into the sea last month was at the controls at the time of the accident, Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) said on Thursday.

Mardjono Siswosuwarno, head investigator for the NTSC, told reporters the flight data recorder recovered from the bottom of the Java Sea provided a "pretty clear picture" of what happened in the last moments of AirAsia Flight QZ8501. But he did not give details.

The Airbus A320 vanished from radar screens in bad weather on Dec 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore. All 162 people on board were killed.

"The second-in-command, popularly known as the co-pilot, who usually sits to the right of the cockpit. At the time, he was flying the plane," Mardjono said. "The captain, sitting to the left, was the pilot monitoring."

Mardjono said the cockpit voice and flight data recorders showed that the plane had been cruising at a stable altitude before the crash. The aircraft was in sound condition when it took off, and all crew members were properly certified, he said.