“At the end of the flight it seemed the pilot felt he could no longer recover the flight, then the panic emerged,” he said while declining to say which of the two pilots panicked.

Lion Air starts work on a US$1 billion initial public offer in wake of tragedy

Investigators examining the Indonesian crash are considering how a computer ordered the plane to dive in response to data from a faulty sensor and whether the pilots had enough training to respond appropriately to the emergency, among other factors.

That crew did not pass on all of the information about the problems they encountered to the pilots of the doomed flight, the report said.

Investigators on Thursday confirmed there was a third, off-duty pilot in the cockpit that evening. That was not mentioned in the preliminary report because they had not interviewed the pilot at that stage as they worked to get the report out fast, Utomo said.

It was reportedly a captain at Lion Air’s full-service sister carrier Batik Air who solved the flight control problems, according to two sources.

Pilot who hitched a ride saved doomed Boeing 737 MAX 8 on next-to-last Lion Air flight

The transportation committee said the pilot was qualified on the 737 MAX 8 but did not say what airline he worked for or what role he played in assisting the crew.

The cockpit voice recording from that flight was wiped during maintenance undertaken before the plane’s final flight, investigators said.