Marwoto Komar was today found guilty of criminal negligence. Prosecutors had sought a four year jail term.

One of the panel of five judges remarked th at the sentence was about the prevention of future accident rather than revenge.

The Australians killed were: Liz O'Neill, a diplomat; Allison Sudradjat, an AusA ID official; Brice Steele and Mark Scott, federal police officers; and Morgan Mellish, a journalist with The Australian Financial Review.

Last month, Komar had made his final pleas of innocence to the panel of judges considering cha rges that he was criminally negligent in causing the crash.

He blamed his co-pilot and technical problems and his legal team insisted that the death toll of 21 was largely due to the late response of fire engines.

Marwoto's latest defence was a departure from his previous explanations which have cent red on a sudden bout of turbulence knocking the plane off course. The accusation of culpability by his co-pilot, Gagam Rohmana, follows earlier evidence from Gagam that he had warned Marwoto to abort the landing and "go around" but was ignored.

Survivors of the crash had told how the front of the plane quickly burst into flames after impact.