Lion Air crash: pilot fought to keep the plane airborne right until the end, says report
- The plane experienced technical difficulties before careering up and down, stalling mid-air and crashing into the sea at more than 600km/h
One of Indonesia’s aviation chiefs has revealed that the pilot of the Lion Air plane that crashed last month, killing 189 people, fought to keep the plane in the air to the end, even after it stalled and was nosediving to the ground.
Addressing the Indonesian parliament in Jakarta, Nurcahyo Utomo, the aviation head of the national transportation safety committee, said data retrieved from the flight recorder showed that the pilot “continued to fight until the end of the flight”, according to a report in The Australian newspaper.
Nurcahyo also confirmed the aircraft had experienced “the same obstacles” on the previous day’s flight from Denpasar to Jakarta, but on that occasion the pilot had managed to keep control of the plane.
Answers are still being sought about why the new Boeing 737 Max aeroplane, operated by one of Indonesia’s biggest airlines, plummeted into the sea moments after take-off
In a detailed account of the flight’s final moments, Nurcahyo said the graphs from the flight recorder showed the plane experienced technical difficulties soon after take-off as the captain and co-pilot began receiving different airspeed readings.