Midday Roundup: Rudder problem, pilot error caused AirAsia plane crash

Rudderless flight. The team investigating the crash of an AirAsia plane in the Java Sea last year has determined a rudder problem and pilot error brought down the airliner, killing all 162 people onboard. The rudder system on the Airbus A320 had failed more than two dozen times in the year before the crash, investigators found. A cracked joint on the circuit board caused the problem, according to the report issued today. After several alarms went off during the Dec. 28, 2014, flight, the pilots attempted to restart the system. Miscommunication between the pilot and co-pilot contributed to the plane entering a sustained stall from which it could not recover. The plane was traveling from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore in stormy weather. It disappeared from radar screens about 40 minutes after takeoff.

Corruption conviction. A New York jury late Monday convicted longtime state lawmaker Sheldon Silver of corruption in a case analysts say will change the way the state’s politicians do business. Lawyers for Silver, former Assembly speaker, argued the state’s top Democrat didn’t do anything that wasn’t politics as usual in New York. He was convicted of trading favors for $4 million in kickbacks from real estate developers and a cancer researcher. His former colleagues expressed shock at the conviction and acknowledged it likely would push forward ethics reform measures Silver had long held at bay. Corruption is also expected to become a major campaign issue next year, when control of the state Senate is up for grabs. Charges of unethical political dealings cross party lines; the state’s Republican leader and his son are both facing their own corruption charges.

Federal waste. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., is following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, with the release of an annual governmental waste report. Lankford’s “Federal Fumbles” report includes 100 examples of what he calls egregious waste followed by 100 policy prescriptions to fix the problems. Examples include $5 billion in fraudulent income tax returns, a $43 million fueling station in Afghanistan eventually abandoned by the military, and a $48,500 grant to study tobacco use in Russia. Despite the report’s emphasis on waste, that’s not all it covers, Lankford noted. His goal is to bring down the $450 billion national budget deficit. He warned the longer lawmakers put off balancing the budget, the harder it will be: “I think we’re losing track of how difficult this is really going to be long term and what needs to be done.”

So not sorry. Turkey is refusing to apologize for shooting down a Russian warplane that strayed into its airspace last week. During a NATO conference on Monday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country has an obligation to protect its airspace. Russia argues the plane posed no threat to Turkey and only briefly crossed into Turkish territory. But NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance backs Turkey, a NATO member. He cited evidence Turkey warned the Russians to leave its airspace before its fighter jets opened fire. “What we saw last week is not the first example of a violation of Turkish airspace by Russian planes,” Stoltenberg said. “And as I said, the information we have is consistent with the information we got from Turkey.

Privacy reboot. The National Security Agency’s (NSA) controversial snooping of Americans’ phone data is now history. The secret data-collection program came to light in 2013 as part of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s data leak. The Obama administration allowed the program to continue temporarily under the USA Freedom Act of 2015, but it expired Sunday. Now the NSA must get a court order first, then approach phone companies to get those records. National security advocates fear the new process will take too long to access critical information needed to thwart terrorist attacks. But privacy rights supporters applaud the change, noting if the program had been effective, the government likely would have fought harder to keep it in place.

WORLD Radio’s Kristen Eicher and Paul Butler contributed to this report.