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Indonesia
AsiaSoutheast Asia

Lion Air crash investigators tell victims’ families Boeing 737 MAX design flaws linked to accident

  • Indonesian investigators briefed victims’ families on Wednesday ahead of the release of a final report into last October’s crash
  • All 189 people on board the doomed jet were killed. A second deadly crash months later saw all Boeing 737 MAX grounded worldwide.

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Family members of one of the doomed plane’s pilots wait at the Transport Ministry for the briefing to begin. Photo: Reuters
Reuters
Mechanical and design issues contributed to the crash of a Lion Air 737 MAX jet last October, Indonesian investigators told victims’ families in a briefing on Wednesday ahead of the release of a final report.
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Contributing factors to the crash of the new Boeing jet, which killed all 189 people on board, included incorrect assumptions on how an anti-stall device called the Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) functioned and how pilots would react, slides in the presentation showed.
Investigators examine engine parts from the ill-fated Lion Air flight after they were recovered from the bottom of the Java Sea. Photo: AFP
Investigators examine engine parts from the ill-fated Lion Air flight after they were recovered from the bottom of the Java Sea. Photo: AFP

The briefing slides showed that a lack of documentation about how systems would behave in a crash scenario, including the activation of a “stick shaker” device that warned pilots of a dangerous loss of lift, also contributed.

“Deficiencies” in the flight crew’s communication and manual control of the aircraft contributed as well, the slides showed, as did alerts and distractions in the cockpit.

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The deficiencies had been “identified during training,” the slides said, without elaborating.

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