The pilot of an Indonesian jetliner that crashed last year killing 21 people appeared in court on Thursday charged with deliberately causing the disaster.

Marwoto Komar, 46, a former captain with Indonesia's national airline Garuda, could face life imprisonment if convicted. He has been charged with three counts of negligence and one of "deliberately" destroying an aircraft causing death. It is the first time an Indonesian pilot has been charged with causing a plane crash.

Mr Komar was landing the aircraft at Yogyakarta airport in central Java in March last year with 140 people on board when the Boeing 737-400 exploded in a fireball off the runway. An official government report found that he had ignored 15 automated cockpit warnings not to land and several frantic pleas from his co-pilot, bringing the plane in at roughly twice the correct speed for landing. As it hit the runway the plane careered into ricefields and exploded.

Four Australian government officials and a journalist were among those killed in the crash. They were following a visit to the historic city by the then Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer, who was on a separate plane.

Mr Kumar's lawyer Muhammed Assegaf said his client would fight the charges on the grounds that international civil aviation codes rule out criminal liability for pilots in crashes. However in police interrogation reports the pilot described the plane as "running wild" and admitted that it touched down at an unsafe speed.

In the report, obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, he said he was concerned about conserving fuel – a possible reason for ignoring the automated alarms telling him to "go around". He admitted the plane's performance was "not stable" and described desperate attempts to bring under control a plane that was descending dangerously fast.

"The plane nose was always going down and it was difficult for me to bring the plane nose up," he said.

"It was impossible for me to go around because it was difficult to lift up the plane's nose, so my last attempt was trying to put the plane on a glide path ... in other words, my only hope was to reach for the runway."

He said that as he landed, the plane was travelling at 150 knots (167 mph). "I do know the possibility of the risks but at least at that time I thought that my attempts carried the least risk," he told interrogating officers.

The National Transportation Safety Committee report handed down in November found that the plane landed at nearly double the safe speed, bouncing off the runway, through the airport fence and across an embankment. Its wing was severed and the plane caught alight with many passengers still inside.

Air safety investigators also found the airport to be at fault, failing to meet international safety standards.

Indonesia's prominent Muslim leader, Din Samsyuddin, travelling to Yogyakarta to meet Mr Downer, scrambled from the wreckage minutes before it burst into flames. Dr Samsyuddin is expected to play a key role in next year's Indonesian presidential elections.

Mr Kumar's arrest has caused outrage among Indonesian pilots, who have staged protests arguing that only aviation experts, and not the legal system have the right to determine who is at fault in an accident.

Indonesia has one of Asia's worst air safety records. Last May a Garuda jet nearly landed on a construction crew working at the end of a Perth airport runway, despite being notified of the work. After the Yogyakarta crash, John Howard's government was criticised for not providing room on board Mr Downer's jet for journalists accompanying him.

The hearing opened and was adjourned until August 4.

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