Lion Air crash due to ‘Boeing flaws’
Design flaws in Boeing’s 737 MAX and a lack of information for pilots on how to deal with malfunctions contributed to the 2018 crash of Lion Air Flight 610, which killed 189 people, say Indonesian investigators.
Design flaws in Boeing’s 737 MAX and a lack of information for pilots on how to deal with malfunctions contributed to 2018’s crash of Lion Air Flight 610, which killed 189 people, say Indonesian investigators.
In a nine-point presentation to victims’ families, the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) criticised certification procedures for the jet, saying a flight-control mechanism was approved based on incorrect assumptions.
The manoeuvring characteristics augmentation system (MCAS) was also implicated in the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX in March that claimed 157 lives.
“Only after the tragedy in Ethiopia, they concluded that it’s Boeing’s fault. Why didn’t they say it in the first place?” said Evi Samsul Komar, whose son died in the October 29 Lion Air crash. “Up until now, we have never been contacted by Boeing.”
Indonesian investigators are due to publish their final report on the crash at 2pm local time on Friday. The findings could influence regulators worldwide as they assess the fate of what was Boeing’s best-selling plane, which has been grounded globally since March 13, costing the company more than $8bn. The head of its jetliner division stepped down on Tuesday after less than three years in the job.
The 737 MAX’s MCAS feature, which automatically pushes the plane’s nose downwards if it detects danger of an aerodynamic stall, has long been in focus in investigations into the two crashes.
In its slideshow on Wednesday, the NTSC said the system was too reliant on a single angleof-attack sensor, making it vulnerable if that sensor malfunctioned and transmitted erroneous readings.
The government agency said a lack of guidance around MCAS made it harder for crews to respond to automated actions by the system. It also said a replacement sensor on the doomed Lion Air plane was not properly calibrated during an earlier repair, and that this error had not been detected. A lack of documentation made it more difficult for maintenance and accident crews to take appropriate actions, a slide showed.
“I’m not satisfied with the briefing and the explanation, but this is the result,” said Komar.
Lion Air and the country’s civil aviation authority recently objected to findings in a draft of the final report on the grounds that they received too much of the blame, people familiar with the matter said in September. One of the people said at the time that 25 of 41 lapses were directed towards the airline.
The findings presented on Wednesday suggest a problem with the plane’s design rather than a software issue, said Satyendra Pandey, a New Delhibased independent analyst and former head of strategy at Go Airlines India. “Going back to revisit the design itself has tremendous ramifications for Boeing both in terms of cost and liability. It can be assumed that Boeing will contest this and point to software as the flaw.”
A Boeing representative said it was too premature to comment on the report as it has not been officially released by Indonesian investigators. Lion Air did not immediately respond to calls seeking comments.
Recently published messages between two senior Boeing test pilots showed they had misgivings about the MCAS on 737 MAX jets during its certification in 2016.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has faced criticism for approving the feature and giving Boeing too much authority to oversee itself, said on Friday it is concerned by comments in the messages between the two pilots and chastised Boeing for not sharing the information sooner. Boeing said it told regulators it had expanded the role of the flightcontrol software.
“As we have suspected since the very beginning, the accident was caused by these two institutions, Boeing and FAA,” said Latief Nurbana, whose son died in the Lion Air crash.
AS WE HAVE SUSPECTED SINCE THE VERY BEGINNING, THE ACCIDENT WAS CAUSED BY THESE TWO INSTITUTIONS, BOEING AND FAA
Problems with the threemonth-old Lion Air jet’s sensors had been reported on three previous flights, including one made from Bali the day before the crash. In that instance, an offduty pilot travelling in the cockpit identified the problem and told the crew how to disable the malfunctioning control system. However, the pilots did not report key issues with the flight after they landed.
A different crew was on board the following day. Flight 610 took off from Jakarta at 6.20am on October 29, heading to the tourist destination of Pangkal Pinang, off Sumatra’s east coast. Minutes later, it plunged into the sea after the pilots an Indian and Indonesian were unable to regain control in a battle with the controls to keep the aircraft from repeatedly diving.
It was Indonesia’s deadliest crash since 1997 and reignited worries about its aviation safety record. The nation’s airlines, including Lion Air, were banned from flying to the EU and the US for almost a decade until 2016 because of safety concerns.
Boeing was hit with a lawsuit earlier in October demanding records that will allegedly show if mismanagement is to blame for safety issues leading to the grounding of the 737 MAX fleet.