Kreindler Following Lion Air Flight 610 Investigation Focusing on Boeing 737 MAX MCAS
Kreindler is following Lion Air Flight 610, which crashed into the Java Sea. A total of 189 people are missing.
Kreindler Mengikuti Jatuhnya Lion Air Penerbangan 610 - Baca dalam Bahasa Indonesia
Update: Early investigation efforts are focused on a faulty AOA sensor, the sensor’s affect on the aircraft’s new MCAS anti-stalling feature, and Boeing’s possible catastrophic lack of instruction to 737 Max 8 pilots regarding the aircraft’s new MCAS feature and how to work with it – particularly in an emergency situation.
Lion Air Flight 610 crashed 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, Indonesia, on Monday, October 29, 2018. All189 people on board the Indonesian airline’s aircraft are presumed dead.
The plane was a new Boeing 737 MAX 8 and was delivered to Lion Air less than three months prior to the crash. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 used CFM LEAP-1B fuel-efficient engines. The first flight of this plane model was on January 29, 2016. The weather on that day was sunny with little wind. The intended destination was eight hours away on Bangka Island off Sumatra, but the pilots began experiencing trouble almost immediately after takeoff. Although the pilots did not declare an emergency, they did radio air traffic control five minutes after takeoff to report that the flight needed to return to Soekarno–Hatta International Airport in Jakarta. Eight minutes later, the flight disappeared from the air traffic control’s radar coverage. Workers on a nearby oil platform in the Java Sea witnessed the plane plunge into the water with a steep nose-down angle.
Known Issues with Flight 610
Radar data showed that the Boeing 737 was behaving erratically during the short flight. About a minute into the flight, the altitude dropped about 726 feet over a span of 21 seconds. Data shows that it was corrected, and the airplane began to climb, but then at approximately 2-3 minutes, the airplane began to level off. At about 10-11 minutes into the flight, the airplane made a sudden, steep descent and then dropped off radar.
The airplane’s flight profile was inconsistent with an autopilot-controlled flight. The radar data indicates that the pilots experienced difficulty controlling the airspeed, climb rate and altitude of the airplane. Lion Air’s admission that the plane had an unspecified technical issue on the previous flight and the plane’s abrupt nosedive just 12 minutes after takeoff on the fated flight have raised questions about whether there were faults specific to the newly released model. The cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data recorders will provide key information into the cause of the crash.
Notable Issues on the Previous Flight – Lion Air Flight JT43
On its immediately preceding flight (Lion Air Flight JT43), the aircraft experienced a technical issue as it flew from Bali Island, Indonesia, to Jakarta. The Bali airport authority reported to the media that the aircraft had experienced a “speed and altimeter” issue. Soon after takeoff, the Lion Air pilots reportedly made a PAN-PAN call to alert air traffic control of an urgent situation. A PAN-PAN alert call is one step down from a Mayday call, which indicates imminent danger. Ultimately, the pilot of Lion Air Flight JT43 decided to continue the flight onto Jakarta and not to return to base (RTB) after reporting that the problem had been resolved while in flight.
Passenger Complaints from the Previous Flight – Lion Air JT43
Passengers on Flight JT43 made social media posts on Instagram sharing their concerns about the prior flight. One passenger aboard Flight JT43 told TVOne that the plane dropped suddenly several times just minutes into the flight. National Transport Safety Committee (NTSC) deputy chief Haryo Satmiko spoke with reporters about the technical issues aboard Flight JT43. Data from Flightradar 24 showed unusual variations in airspeed readings and altitude, as well as an 875-foot drop over a 27-second time span before it stabilized and continued toward Jakarta. A similar pattern is also seen in data from Monday’s fatal flight. Safety experts caution that the data must be checked against the information recovered from Flight 610’s black boxes.
Accident Investigation
One of the Boeing 737 MAX 8’s flight data recorders was recovered three days after the crash from the floor of the Java Sea. The flight voice recorder has not yet been recovered from the Java Sea.
Eight days after the crash, on November 6, 2018, Boeing issued an Operations Manual Bulletin (OMB), directing operators to existing flight crew procedures to address circumstances where there is erroneous input from a sensor.
AOA Sensor
The Angle of Attack (AOA) sensor is similar to a wind vane and is located on the outside of Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplanes. The AOA sensors are meant to transmit data about the angle of the plane’s nose and can help predict if the plane might stall and dive. The sensor is designed to trigger the maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS). The day before the Lion Air crash the plane had experienced issues with its AOA, and the sensor was reportedly replaced. Investigators are looking at the possibility of the Lion Air’s AOA sensor having transmitted incorrect information that may have triggered the MCAS and forced the airplane’s nose down.
MCAS System
New Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft incorporate a new anti-stalling feature, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). Early investigation reports indicate that the Lion Air Flight 610 pilots may not have been aware or trained in the new feature, particularly working with MCAS in an emergency situation.
A spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association (APA) told journalists that although he is an experienced Boeing 737 Max 8 pilot, he has never trained on the new MCAS feature and was completely unaware of it prior to Boeing’s post-crash November 6 bulletin.
According to Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi, Indonesia’s directorate-general of air transportation requested that Lion Air remove four officials (the director of maintenance and engineering, quality control manager, flight maintenance manager and release manager) from duty to assist in the investigation. The officials’ aircraft maintenance engineer licenses will be suspended during the process. Transport Minister Sumadi said that all Boeing MAX 8 planes operated by Lion Air and Garuda are going through an inspection process with no issues found so far. Both Boeing and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are assisting with the investigation.
About Lion Air
Lion Air, owned by Lion Air Group, was started in 1999 and is considered a budget airline. It has more than 110 aircraft and is Indonesia’s largest airline. From 2007-2016 the airline was banned
from operating in EU and U.S. airspace. Two days following the Flight 610 crash, Lion Air, acting upon “the instruction and the decision of the (Indonesian) Transportation Ministry,” fired its technical director. Indonesian news website tirto.id reported that Lion Air Managing Director Daniel Putut said that the airline had “many questions” for Chicago-based Boeing and that they would discuss the delivery of 737-MAX models still on order.
Previous Lion Air Incidents
Significant Lion Air crashes include:
- January 2002: Lion Air Flight 386 crashed after attempting to take off. Everyone survived, but the entire aircraft was written off.
- November 2004: Lion Air Flight 538 crashed in Surakarta, killing 25 people.
- March 2006: Lion Air Flight 8987 crashed after landing and skidded off the runway. There were no fatalities, but the plane was written off.
- April 2013: Lion Air Flight 907 overshot a landing and crashed into the water near Denpasar. Passengers and crew were evacuated.
Indonesia Aviation Industry Blacklist
Due to its past erratic safety record, Indonesia’s aviation industry was only recently removed from U.S. and European blacklists. Flight JT610 is the country’s second-deadliest air disaster in two decades and has renewed concerns over Indonesia’s flight safety. The country’s worst aviation accident occurred in 1997 when a Garuda Airbus A-300B4 crashed just short of the airport in North Sumatra, killing all 234 people on board. A 2014 AirAsia crash killed all 162 on the flight when the plane hurtled into the Java Sea. According to the Aviation Safety Network, Indonesia has seen 40 fatal air disasters in the past 15 years.