Indonesian officials have suggested a faulty component was a “major factor” in the crash of an AirAsia operated Airbus A320-200 in December last year.

Flight QZ8501 came down on route from Surabaya to Singapore when it came down in the Java Sea, with the loss of 162 lives.

The first major report into the crash added the actions of the crew in response to the malfunction may also have contributed to the disaster.

Soldering on a tiny electronic part in the system that controlled the rudder was cracked, argues the report, causing it to send four warning signals to the pilots.

The crew tried to fix the problem by resetting the computer, but this inadvertently disabled the autopilot.

The pilots then lost control of the plane.

Investigators had initially indicated that bad weather was a major factor in the crash.

The majority of the passengers on board were Indonesian, while a Frenchman, a Singaporean, a Malaysian, a Briton, and three South Koreans were also among those killed.