Investigators probe whether automatic throttle malfunction caused Indonesian air crash The line of inquiry is one of several theories on why the plane crashed into the Java Sea on January 9 Funeral ceremony for Sriwijaya aircraft crew in Surabaya Credit: Anadolu Agency Investigators in Indonesia are probing whether a malfunctioning automatic throttle could have brought down the Sriwijaya Airlines flight that nosedived into the Java Sea on January 9. A person familiar with the investigation told Bloomberg that the autothrottle was producing more thrust in one of the Boeing 737-500’s two engines than the other after the plane took off from Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta airport carrying 62 people.