Doomed Lion Air jet was airworthy, Indonesian crash investigators now say
- Some media had earlier reported investigators as saying that the plane was no longer airworthy
Investigators of the October 29 crash of a Lion Air flight into the Java Sea say the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft was deemed airworthy when it made its final take-off from Jakarta.
The officials summoned reporters on Thursday to clarify comments made at a news conference the day before, where some media reported the investigators had said the plane was not airworthy when it took off.
The issue of airworthiness is crucial because of concerns over technical issues with the new Boeing 737 MAX that crashed and questions over the airline’s safety procedures. All 189 people aboard the flight between Jakarta and a regional airport died in the disaster.
The National Transportation Safety Commission (NTSC) investigators were reporting this week on data from the aircraft’s black boxes. They say the cockpit voice recorder, which is still missing and being searched for, is needed to understand what exactly caused the jet to plunge in the Java Sea just 11 minutes after take-off.
“The NTSC and the Head of Aviation Communication never stated that Lion Air, Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft registered PK-LQP, was not airworthy,” said investigator Nurcahyo Utomo. On Wednesday, Utomo said the plane had experienced technical problems on four of the six flights before it crashed.
In principle, when the engineer has stated it’s airworthy, then it’s airworthy
On its penultimate flight, as during the final one, pilots struggled to prevent an automatic safety feature from forcing the nose of the aircraft down due to problems with its sensors.