New details highlight problems before crash

JAKARTA, Indonesia — New details about the crashed Lion Air jet’s previous flight cast more doubt on the Indonesian airline’s claim to have fixed technical problems, as hundreds of personnel searched the sea for a fifth day Friday for victims and the plane’s fuselage.

The brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane plunged into the Java Sea early Monday, just minutes after taking off from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.

Herson, head of the Bali-Nusa Tenggara Airport Authority, said the pilot on the plane’s previous flight on Sunday from Bali requested to return to the airport not long after takeoff but then reported the problem had been resolved. Several passengers have described the problem as a terrifying loss of altitude.

Lion Air, a budget carrier that is the biggest domestic airline in Indonesia, has said the unspecified problem was fixed after Sunday’s flight, but the fatal flight’s pilots also made a “return to base” request not long after takeoff.

“Shortly after requesting RTB, the pilot then contacted the control tower again to inform that the plane had run normally and would not return” to Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport on Sunday, said Herson, who uses a single name. “The captain said the problem was resolved and he decided to continue the trip to Jakarta.”

Data from flight-tracking websites show both flights had highly erratic speed and altitude after takeoff, though confirmation is required from data recorded by the aircraft’s “black box” flight recorders.

Indonesia’s Tempo news website published a minute-by-minute summary of what it said were the conversations between air traffic control and the pilots of Monday’s fatal flight, who reported a “flight control problem” and were unsure of their altitude. Asked about the accuracy of the report, National Transportation Safety Committee deputy head Haryo Satmiko said it had “similarities” with the information received “legally” by investigators.

Officials displayed one of the jet’s two flight recorders at a news conference Thursday evening, later confirmed to be the flight data recorder, and said they would immediately attempt to download information and begin an analysis.

A team from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board including Boeing experts has joined the Indonesian investigation. Indonesian investigators will also travel to the U.S. to meet with the designers of the newgeneration Boeing jet.

Adek Berry / AFP / Getty Images Navy divers look at the wheels of the ill-fated Lion Air plane, which were recovered from the Java Sea. Other parts of the crashed jet were also hauled from the sea. All 189 people on board were killed.