Indonesia Lion Air flight JT610 with 189 on board crashes into sea

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November 7, 2018 - FAA issues emergency directive on Boeing 737 Max after Lion Air Crash
FAA issues emergency directive on Boeing 737 Max after Lion Air crash | Reuters

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Wednesday issued an emergency airworthiness directive on about 250 Boeing 737 Max aircraft after the U.S. aircraft manufacturer sent a bulletin to carriers in the aftermath of a deadly Lion Air flight.

The FAA said the order is effective immediately and covers 45 aircraft in the United States operated by carriers including Southwest Air Co, United Airlines and American Airlines Group Inc and addresses erroneous angle of attack inputs.

The directive orders operators to revise the airplane flight manual to give the flight crew horizontal stabilizer trim procedures to follow under some conditions.

 

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November 8, 2018 - After deadly Lion Air crash, new focus on torrid industry growth in Indonesia
After deadly Lion Air crash, new focus on torrid industry growth in Indonesia | Reuters


A pilot of Lion Air Group leaves an aircraft simulator after a routine practice session at Angkasa Training Center near Jakarta, Indonesia, November 2, 2018. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan

In April 2013, a Lion Air Boeing 737 missed the runway on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in bad weather and plowed into the sea, cracking its fuselage open on the rocks.

All 108 on board survived. But a September 2014 report by Indonesia’s air crash investigators highlighted errors and poor training, saying the 24-year-old co-pilot had failed to adhere to the “basic principles of jet aircraft flying.”

Lion Air, struggling to get off a European Union blacklist because of “unaddressed safety concerns,” asked Airbus, which supplies part of its fleet, to help improve training.

The EU removed the privately owned budget airline from the list in 2016 after it determined Lion Air met international safety standards. None of Indonesia’s roughly 100 airlines - most of them tiny - remain on the EU blacklist, with the last few coming off in June. All were banned in 2007; the national carrier, Garuda Indonesia, was the first to be removed in 2009.

The crash of a Lion Air jet on Oct. 29 into the sea off Jakarta has put a spotlight back on the airline’s safety record, although the cause remains undetermined. None of the aircraft’s 189 passengers and crew survived.

Lion Air’s latest crisis illustrates the challenge relatively new carriers face as they try to keep pace with unstoppable demand for air travel in developing nations while striving for standards that mature markets took decades to reach.

Retired air force chief of staff Chappy Hakim, an adviser to the transport ministry, told Reuters he avoided flying with Lion Air or other Indonesian airlines, with the exception of Garuda, which has not had a fatal crash since 2007.

“I know Garuda,” he said of the national carrier. “The other airlines, I don’t believe they do the maintenance and training properly.” He declined to elaborate further.

Lion Air Managing Director Daniel Putut disputed any laxity in the airline’s safety culture, stressing that it conducted maintenance in accordance with manufacturer guidelines.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the Indonesian aviation authority, did not respond to multiple requests for comment about Lion Air’s safety record.

Putut, a former pilot, also told Reuters during a visit to the airline’s training center near the Jakarta airport that it complied with all regulatory requirements.

He said Lion Air had worked hard to install an attitude of “zero tolerance” for accidents after the Bali crash, making last week’s disaster a painful eye-opener. Thousands of Lion Air flights have taken off and landed without serious incident since then.

“We are also looking into what went wrong - new aircraft, experienced crews, and we have applied the zero-tolerance culture, yet another accident happened,” Putut said. “But we still don’t know the cause, so we will wait for the investigation from NTSC (National Transportation Safety Committee).”

SAFETY CULTURE
Frank Caron, head of a risk consulting firm who served as Lion Air’s safety manager from 2009 to 2011 after insurance companies requested a foreign expert, said that at the time he was troubled by what he regarded as the airline’s attitude that accidents were inevitable.

“Safety is much more than running concepts and procedures,” he said. “Safety is a spirit, a state of mind, a way of thinking, an attitude in the daily aspects of an operational life. And that is precisely what Lion never got. They would say, ‘The airline has 250 flights a day, it is not abnormal that you have accidents.’”

For example, after the 2013 Bali crash, Lion Air co-founder Rusdi Kirana told local media who asked about the airline’s safety record: “If we are seen to have many accidents, it’s because of our frequency of flights.”

Caron claimed he left Lion Air after some of his safety recommendations were not implemented. Lion Air’s chief executive declined to comment on Caron’s account of his departure or his other assertions.

Indonesian accident investigators made four recommendations after the Bali crash, including that Lion Air should “ensure that all pilots must be competent in hand flying” and teach proper cockpit coordination.

They also urged the aviation authority to ensure all airlines under its control did the same. Putut said Lion Air embraced those recommendations.

Between the Bali crash and the one last week, Lion Air had three non-fatal accidents, including one in April in which a 737 skidded off a runway, according to Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety Network database. Since it began operating 18 years ago, Lion Air has seen a total of eight planes damaged beyond repair in accidents, two of which killed a combined 214 people, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.

During the same period, five jets from its chief rival, the national carrier Garuda Indonesia (GIAA.JK), were damaged beyond repair, and two accidents killed a combined 22 people, according to the database. Garuda declined to comment about its safety record.

Since the 2013 Bali crash, Lion Air has sought to improve safety by gaining European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification for its pilot training and maintenance facilities.

EASA certifies its training center to instruct other airlines’ pilots on A320 simulators and is seeking the same approvals for 737 jets and ATR72 turboprops, said Audy L Punuh, Lion Air’s Angkasa Pilot Training Organisation Director.

RAPID GROWTH
Lion Air has expanded quickly since it started flying in 2000, overtaking national carrier Garuda by capturing more than half of the domestic market and establishing offshoots in Thailand and Malaysia.

It has ridden a wave of aviation growth in Indonesia, where air travel has become critical for the economy.

Domestic air traffic more than tripled in Indonesia over the past decade as prosperity and low fares made flying affordable for more people.

With 129 million passengers in 2017, the Southeast Asian country was already the world’s 10th-largest aviation market and is projected to continue growing.

That growth has been accompanied by an air-accident rate that was twice the global average in 2017 and consistently higher than Indonesia’s neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, according to the United Nations’ aviation agency.

Indonesian pilots are allowed to fly a maximum of 110 hours a month, which is more than the 100 hours in most other countries.

Last year seven commercial planes were damaged beyond repair around the world, according to Boeing data; two were in Indonesia, wrecked in non-fatal accidents involving Sriwijaya Air and Tri M.G. Airlines.

LATEST CRASH
Flight JT610 took off from Jakarta at 6:20 a.m. on Oct. 29, bound for Bangka island, off Sumatra, and plunged into the sea 13 minutes later. Just before the crash, the pilot asked to return to the airport.

The aircraft flew erratically on its previous flight and its airspeed readings were unreliable, according to an accident investigator and a flight tracking website.

Investigators on Monday said the flight data recorder from the downed jet showed an airspeed indicator had been damaged during its final four flights, raising questions about maintenance and mechanical problems.

Boeing said on Wednesday it had issued a bulletin to airlines reminding pilots about what it described as existing procedures for handling erroneous data from sensors.

It is too early for regulators to decide whether to reconsider the decision to remove Lion Air from the EU blacklist, EU Ambassador to Indonesia Vincent Guerend told Reuters.

“The European Commission continues to monitor the situation on a regular basis,” he said. “It is still too early to have any conclusive views on the causes of the accident.”

 

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November 15, 2018 - Explainer: Unraveling the Boeing 737 MAX Lion Air crash
Explainer: Unraveling the Boeing 737 MAX Lion Air crash | Reuters


FILE PHOTO: A worker assists his colleague during the lifting of a turbine engine of the Lion Air flight JT610 jet, at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta, Indonesia, November 4, 2018. Picture taken November 4, 2018. REUTERS/Beawiharta/File Photo

The crash of a Boeing Co 737 MAX jet in Indonesia on Oct. 29 has raised questions on whether the manufacturer shared enough information with regulators, airlines and pilots about the systems on the latest version of its popular narrow-body plane.

The jet operated by budget carrier Lion Air crashed into the Java Sea shortly after take-off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.

WHAT IS NEW ON THE 737 MAX?
The most hyped features of the 737 MAX compared with its predecessor, the 737NG, are more fuel-efficient engines.

But as a result of the larger engines, which are placed higher and further forward of the wing, the jet’s balance changed. To address that, Boeing put in place more anti-stall protections, Leeham Co analyst Bjorn Fehrm said in an online post.

An automated protection system called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) kicks in when the angle of attack is too high, when the plane’s nose is too elevated, threatening a stall.

WHAT IS ‘ANGLE OF ATTACK’?
On paper, it measures the angle between the air flow and the wing. But it is so fundamental to flight that historians say the only instrument on the Wright Brothers' first aircraft was a piece of yarn designed to measure it. (bit.ly/2KcBlVT)

If the angle of attack is too high, the airflow over the wing is disturbed, throwing the plane into an aerodynamic stall.

One of two angle of attack sensors on the Lion Air jet was faulty, according to Indonesian investigators.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last week warned airlines that erroneous inputs from those sensors could lead the jet automatically to pitch its nose down even when autopilot is turned off, making it difficult for pilots to control.

WHICH AIRLINES OPERATE THE 737 MAX?
Boeing has delivered 241 of the jets to customers since it entered service last year, according to its website.

Major operators include Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, Norwegian, Lion Air, Air Canada, China Southern, China Eastern and flydubai.

Another 4,542 have been ordered but not yet delivered.

WHAT DID AIRLINES AND PILOTS KNOW ABOUT THE SYSTEM?
Lion Air’s flight manual did not contain information about the new anti-stall system, according to investigators and an airplane flight manual seen by Reuters. U.S. pilots were also not made aware in training courses, pilot unions say.

American Airlines said it was “unaware” of some of the functionality of the MCAS system. [L4N1XQ23Q]

Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg told Fox Business Network on Tuesday that Boeing provides “all of the information that’s needed to safely fly our airplanes”.

HOW WOULD A PILOT SHUT OFF THE SYSTEM?
Pilots can stop the automated response by pressing two buttons if the system behaves unexpectedly, the FAA says.

That action is set out in a checklist used by Lion Air pilots for in-air troubleshooting, an instructor said. It is also required to be committed to memory by pilots.

Pilots on a flight from Jakarta to Bali the day before the crash experienced a similar sensor issue but managed to land safely by turning off the system, the New York Times reported.

HOW WAS THE SYSTEM APPROVED?
The FAA holds the main responsibility for certifying Boeing jets and training programs for pilots, but local regulators also issue approvals for airlines based in their countries.

An unresolved question is how Boeing measured the system’s reliability and on what basis the FAA certified it as safe.

HOW ARE PILOTS TRAINED?
An FAA document on training requirements for 737 MAX pilots transitioning from the older 737NG, available online (bit.ly/2B8qhG5), has no reference to the new anti-stall system.

Lion Air says it followed a training regime approved by U.S. and European regulators. The training was restricted to three hours of computer-based training and a familiarization flight.

However, Brazil’s regulator told Reuters that it had required specific training for pilots on the anti-stall system.

WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE THE CRASH?
Boeing last week issued a bulletin to airlines reiterating existing procedures and advising them to add information on the anti-stall system to flight manuals, which was quickly followed by an FAA directive making that mandatory.

The FAA and Boeing are studying the need for software changes, as well as revisions to training and operating procedures on the 737 MAX, the regulator said.

WHEN WILL THE FIRST REPORT ON THE CRASH BE RELEASED?
A preliminary report will be released on Nov. 28 or 29, according to Indonesian investigators. However, divers have yet to locate the airline’s cockpit voice recorder, which would shed light on pilot interactions that are important for gaining a fuller picture of the circumstances of the crash.


November 15, 2018 - Lion Air Crash Victim's Father files US Lawsuit against Boeing
Lion Air crash victim's father files U.S. lawsuit against Boeing | Reuters

An Indonesia man, whose son was killed when a Lion Air flight crashed last month, has sued Boeing Co alleging that a defect in the design of the 737 MAX 8 aircraft caused it to crash.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, by the father of Dr. Rio Nanda Pratama, alleged that Boeing did not adequately warn Lion Air or its pilots of an unsafe design condition. Boeing is headquartered in Illinois.

Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea shortly after take-off from Jakarta on Oct. 29, killing all 189 people on board.

Dr. Pratama, of Indonesia, was flying home from a conference when the plane crashed. He was to be married this week, according to attorney Curtis Miner of the Florida-based law firm Colson Hicks Eidson, which is representing his father in the wrongful death lawsuit.

 

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11.28.2018 - Doomed Lion Air Jet was 'not airworthy' on penultimate flight: Investigators
World News | Reuters.com


Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) sub-committee head for air accidents, Nurcahyo Utomo, holds a model airplane while speaking next to deputy chief of KNKT Haryo Satmiko during a news conference on its investigation into a Lion Air plane crash last month, in Jakarta, Indonesia November 28, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside

A Lion Air jet that crashed into the sea off Indonesia last month was not in an airworthy condition on its second-to-last flight, when pilots experienced similar problems to those on its doomed last journey, investigators said on Wednesday.

Contact with the Boeing 737 MAX jet was lost 13 minutes after it took off on Oct. 29 from the capital, Jakarta, heading north to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang.

In a preliminary report, Indonesia’s transport safety committee (KNKT) focused on the airline’s maintenance practices and pilot training and a Boeing anti-stall system but did not give a cause for the crash that killed all 189 people on board.

The report unveiled fresh details of efforts by pilots to steady the jet as they reported a “flight control problem”, including the captain’s last words to air traffic control asking to be cleared to “five thou” or 5,000 feet.

Lion Air CEO Edward Sirait on Wednesday evening rejected some media reports quoting KNKT that the airline’s Boeing 737 passenger jet that crashed on Oct. 29 was not airworthy since its penultimate flight from Denpasar to Jakarta.

It had been cleared as airworthy by Lion Air engineers on that flight as well as its final flight, KNKT investigator Nurcahyo Utomo said earlier in the day.

“I think pilots can judge for themselves whether to continue,” said Lion Air Managing Director Daniel Putut, a former pilot.

Utomo, in contrast, pointed to multiple problems, including the “severe” issue of stall warnings occurring in tandem on the Bali-Jakarta flight that were enough for the KNKT to determine the flight should not have continued.

Information retrieved from the flight data recorder showed the “stick shaker” was vibrating the captain’s controls, warning of a stall throughout most of the flight. The captain was using his controls to bring the plane’s nose up, but an automated anti-stall system was pushing it down.

Pilots flying the same plane a day earlier had experienced a similar problem, en route from Denpasar, Bali to Jakarta, until they used switches to shut off the system and used manual controls to fly and stabilise the plane, KNKT said.

“The flight from Denpasar to Jakarta experienced stick shaker activation during the takeoff rotation and remained active throughout the flight,” the committee said.

“This condition is considered un-airworthy” and the flight should have been “discontinued”.

The pilots of that flight reported problems to Lion Air’s maintenance team, which checked the jet and cleared it for take-off the next morning.

Former Boeing flight control engineer Peter Lemme said stick shaker activation was “very distracting and unnerving”.

“It’s not something you ever want to have happen as a pilot,” he said.

Utomo said the agency had not determined if the anti-stall system, which was not explained to pilots in manuals, was a contributing factor.

“We still don’t know yet, if it contributed or not,” he said in response to a question. “It is too early to conclude.”

In a statement, Boeing drew attention in detail to a list of airline maintenance actions set out in the report but stopped short of blaming ground workers or pilots for the accident.

REVISED ANTI-STALL SYSTEM
The manufacturer, which has said procedures for preventing an anti-stall system activating by accident were already in place, said pilots of the penultimate flight had used that drill but noted the report did not say if pilots of the doomed flight did so.

Boeing’s statement did not make any reference to a revised anti-stall system introduced on the 737 MAX which U.S. pilots and Indonesian investigators say was missing from the operating manual.

Boeing says the procedure for dealing with a so-called runaway stabiliser, under which anti-stall systems push the nose down even when the plane is not entering a stall or losing lift, had not changed between an earlier version of the 737 and the newly delivered 737 MAX.

Pilots however say the control column behaves differently in certain conditions, which could confuse pilots who have flown the earlier model.

Indonesian regulators were urged after previous accidents to improve their oversight of maintenance and pilot training.

In an interview, Indonesia’s director general of aviation, Polana Pramesti, said the agency planned to require pilots in Indonesia to be trained on simulators for the MAX series.

Pramesti also said a new regulation was being planned to limit the risk of pilot fatigue occurring and should be issued in the “near future”.

A source at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said a number of factors were ultimately likely to be cited as causes of the crash, including pilot training and maintenance. It had still to be determined how much, if at all, the plane design would be faulted, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The report provided new recommendations to Lion Air on safety on top of earlier recommendations about the flight manual that have already been implemented by Boeing.

Lion Air CEO Sirait said the airline would comply with KNKT’s recommendations which included ensuring pilots made the proper decision on whether to continue a flight.

Authorities have downloaded data from the flight data recorder, but are still looking for the cockpit voice recorder (CVR).

Indonesia plans to bring in a ship from Singapore able to stay in position without dropping anchor, to help with the search.

Asked what was needed from the CVR, Utomo said: “A lot. Discussions between the left and right pilots were about what? What procedures did they carry out. Were there any strange noises?”

Without it, he said there would be “a lot of guessing”.

Slideshow (5 Images)
Doomed Lion Air jet was 'not airworthy' on penultimate flight: investigators | Reuters

 

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December 3, 2018 - Exclusive: Lion Air ponders canceling Boeing Jets in row over crash - sources
Exclusive: Lion Air ponders canceling Boeing jets in row over crash - sources | Reuters

Indonesia’s Lion Air is reviewing airplane purchases from Boeing Co and has not ruled out canceling orders as relations worsen in a spat over responsibility for a 737 jetliner crash that killed 189 people in late October.

Co-founder Rusdi Kirana is furious over what he regards as attempts by Boeing to deflect attention from recent design changes and blame Lion Air for the crash, while the airline faces scrutiny over its maintenance record and pilots’ actions.

Kirana is examining the possibility of canceling remaining orders of Boeing jets “from the next delivery,” according to a person familiar with his thinking. Another source close to the airline said it was looking at canceling orders.

No final decision has been made, but discussion over the fate of $22 billion of remaining orders highlights the stakes surrounding an investigation involving Boeing’s fastest-ever selling jet, the 737 MAX, which entered service last year.
Lion Air has 190 Boeing jets worth $22 billion at list prices waiting to be delivered, on top of 197 already taken, making it one of the largest U.S. export customers.

Any request to cancel could be designed to put pressure on Boeing and would likely trigger extensive negotiations. Many airlines defer orders, but industry sources say aerospace suppliers rarely allow much scope for unilateral cancellations.

Lion Air declined to comment. A Boeing spokesman said: “We are taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, and are working closely with the investigating team and all regulatory authorities involved. We are also supporting our valued customer through this very tough time.”

MAINTENANCE, SOFTWARE
Kirana, who is now Indonesia’s envoy to Malaysia but still carries weight at the airline he co-founded with his brother in 2000, ordered the review in response to a Boeing statement focusing attention on piloting and maintenance, the person said.

Boeing released the statement after investigators last week issued an interim report focusing on maintenance actions spread over four flights in the run-up to the doomed flight on Oct. 29.

Boeing is also examining software changes in the wake of the crash, while insisting longstanding procedures exist for pilots to cancel automated nose-down movements experienced by the 737 MAX in response to erroneous sensor readings.

It has come under fire from U.S. pilots for not mentioning the MCAS system - a modification of existing anti-stall systems - in the manual for the 737 MAX, which began service last year.

“Why are they changing (software) if there was nothing wrong?” the person familiar with Kirana’s thinking said.

Boeing has said all information needed to fly the 737 safely is available to pilots and that its workhorse model is safe.

Some financial sources say Lion Air and southeast Asian rivals over-expanded and would be comfortable with fewer orders.

But the row highlights an unusually polarized dispute over the causes of the crash. Experts say most accidents are caused by a cocktail of factors and parties rarely comment in detail before the final report, which often follows a year of analysis.

In its statement, Boeing recapped the interim report and listed questions on maintenance and pilot behavior that it said remained unanswered in the 78-page document, but did not mention the MCAS modification covered in an earlier safety bulletin.

It is not the first time an airline has crossed swords with its supplier after a crash. Lion Air’s rival AirAsia clashed with Airbus after its Indonesian subsidiary lost an A320 in 2014. It continued to take deliveries, but relations never fully recovered and it later toyed with buying 787s from Boeing.

 

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Update: Indonesia has found the cockpit voice recorder from a Lion Air plane more than two months after the Boeing Co 737 MAX jet crashed into the sea near Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board, search officials said on Monday.

Mon Jan 14, 2019 - Indonesia finds crashed Lion Air jet’s cockpit voice recorder
PressTV-Indonesia finds crashed Lion Air jet’s second black box

Naval Lieutenant Colonel Agung Nugroho told Reuters a weak signal from the recorder had been detected for several days and that it had been found buried in about 8 meters (26 feet) of mud in waters about 30 meters deep.

"We don't know what damage there is, it has obvious scratches on it," Nugroho said.

Contact with flight JT610 was lost 13 minutes after it took off on October 29 from the capital, Jakarta, heading north to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang. The crash was the world's first of a Boeing 737 MAX jet and the deadliest of 2018.

This photo taken on October 31, 2018 shows Indonesian search and rescue teams alongside the ship Baruna Jaya I (C) along with members of the Indonesian Navy (L) conducting search operations for victims and the flight data recorder from ill-fated Lion Air flight JT 610, in the sea north of Karawang in West Java. (By AFP)

The cockpit voice recorder is one of the two so-called black boxes crucial for the investigation of a plane crash.

The other black box, the flight data recorder, was recovered three days after the crash.

Investigators brought in a navy ship last week for a fresh search after a 10-day effort funded by Lion Air failed to find the recorder.

Separately, Colonel Johan Wahyudi told Metro TV the recorder had been retrieved and taken aboard the ship.

 

[Ca.]

Another interesting development in the Java Sea. The last line (concerning the ships last plotted position on Jan 8), reminded me of confusion of the cell phones on Malaysia Airlines MH -370. Slipping (perhaps), in out of density's!

Tanker missing in Java sea – still no trace found
Posted in Accidents by Mikhail Voytenko on Jan. 24, 2019 at 08:09.


Jan 24 UPDATE: Already a month passed since tanker disappeared, and still no trace, no hint as to what fate befall NAMSE BANGDZOD. Search is still under way, with all Indonesian shipowners and ships being on alert. But still, nothing. Tanker can’t sink in minutes, like dry cargo ship in case of cargo shift and capsizing. This one couldn’t explode or be glutted by fire, either, considering its’ palm oil cargo. Also, major fire in Java sea couldn’t be overlooked, Java sea is too populated for that. So sudden instantaneous sinking without a trace is an unlikely event. Piracy? Piracy version still seems to be most likely explanation, though usually it takes days, 2 weeks at most, to rob tanker of its’ cargo and release her. Maybe “something went wrong”, in this case.

Jan 9 UPDATE: No traces of tanker found so far, Marinetraffic.com emergence and disappearance of ship’s AIS track is not the only one mysterious track recorded by AIS systems, there were others, said Indonesian officials. The main version explaining tanker’s disappearance, as of now, is piracy – 12-crew tanker could be hijacked, for the purpose of stealing expensive cargo of crude palm oil. Massive search is ongoing.

Jan 8 UPDATE: Indonesia still searching for missing tanker NAMSE BANGDZOD, but no trace yet found. Tanker’s AIS track on Marinetraffic.com is a mystery too, it disappeared after a hectic track, same day as it appeared, on Jan 7. Tanker according to this track, was already on Jakarta anchorage, but in reality, she wasn’t. Indonesian authorities know about this mysterious track, but can’t yet explain it. One thing is certain for now – tanker is still missing, with no traces of disaster, or oil leaks, found along her scheduled route from southern Kalimantan to Jakarta.

Jan 7: Product tanker NAMSE BANGDZOD on Jan 7 was declared missing, by Indonesian Maritime Authorities, since Dec 28. Tanker with 12 crew, loaded with palm oil, left Sampit, southern Kalimantan, bound for Jakarta, exact date unknown.
Contacts lost since Dec 28, she’s operated by Surabaya Shipping Lines. Large-scale search across Java sea didn’t yield any results yet, according to officials.

Strange thing is, ship’s AIS re-emerged on Marinetraffic.com on Jan 6, though track is rather hectic and kind of, confused. All other available AIS don’t have ship’s records since Nov-Dec.

 

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The pilots of a doomed Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX scoured a handbook as they struggled to understand why the jet was lurching downwards, but ran out of time before it hit the water, three people with knowledge of the cockpit voice recorder contents said.

March 20, 2019 - Exclusive: Cockpit voice recorder of doomed Lion Air jet depicts pilots' frantic search for fix - sources

FILE PHOTO: Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of a Lion Air JT610 that crashed into Tanjung Karawang sea is seen inside a special container after it was found under the sea, during a press conference at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, January 14, 2019. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/File Photo

The investigation into the crash, which killed all 189 people on board in October, has taken on new relevance as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other regulators grounded the model last week after a second deadly accident in Ethiopia.

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.

It is the first time the voice recorder contents from the Lion Air flight have been made public. The three sources discussed them on condition of anonymity.

The captain was at the controls of Lion Air flight JT610 when the nearly new jet took off from Jakarta, and the first officer was handling the radio, according to a preliminary report issued in November.

Just two minutes into the flight, the first officer reported a “flight control problem” to air traffic control and said the pilots intended to maintain an altitude of 5,000 feet, the November report said.

The first officer did not specify the problem, but one source said airspeed was mentioned on the cockpit voice recording, and a second source said an indicator showed a problem on the captain’s display but not the first officer’s.

The captain asked the first officer to check the quick reference handbook, which contains checklists for abnormal events, the first source said.

For the next nine minutes, the jet warned pilots it was in a stall and pushed the nose down in response, the report showed. A stall is when the airflow over a plane’s wings is too weak to generate lift and keep it flying.

The captain fought to climb, but the computer, still incorrectly sensing a stall, continued to push the nose down using the plane’s trim system. Normally, trim adjusts an aircraft’s control surfaces to ensure it flies straight and level.

“They didn’t seem to know the trim was moving down,” the third source said. “They thought only about airspeed and altitude. That was the only thing they talked about.”

Boeing Co declined to comment on Wednesday because the investigation was ongoing.

But they did not pass on all of the information about the problems they encountered to the next crew, the report said.

The pilots of JT610 remained calm for most of the flight, the three sources said. Near the end, the captain asked the first officer to fly while he checked the manual for a solution.

About one minute before the plane disappeared from radar, the captain asked air traffic control to clear other traffic below 3,000 feet and requested an altitude of “five thou”, or 5,000 feet, which was approved, the preliminary report said.

As the 31-year-old captain tried in vain to find the right procedure in the handbook, the 41-year-old first officer was unable to control the plane, two of the sources said.

The flight data recorder shows the final control column inputs from the first officer were weaker than the ones made earlier by the captain.

“It is like a test where there are 100 questions and when the time is up you have only answered 75,” the third source said. “So you panic. It is a time-out condition.”

The Indian-born captain was silent at the end, all three sources said, while the Indonesian first officer said “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is greatest”, a common Arabic phrase in the majority-Muslim country that can be used to express excitement, shock, praise or distress.

The plane then hit the water, killing all 189 people on board.

French air accident investigation agency BEA said on Tuesday the flight data recorder in the Ethiopian crash that killed 157 people showed “clear similarities” to the Lion Air disaster. Since the Lion Air crash, Boeing has been pursuing a software upgrade to change how much authority is given to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, a new anti-stall system developed for the 737 MAX.

The cause of the Lion Air crash has not been determined, but the preliminary report mentioned the Boeing system, a faulty, recently replaced sensor and the airline’s maintenance and training.

On the same aircraft the evening before the crash, a captain at Lion Air’s full-service sister carrier, Batik Air, was riding along in the cockpit and solved the similar flight control problems, two of the sources said. His presence on that flight, first reported by Bloomberg, was not disclosed in the preliminary report.

The report also did not include data from the cockpit voice recorder, which was not recovered from the ocean floor until January.

Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of Indonesian investigation agency KNKT, said last week the report could be released in July or August as authorities attempted to speed up the inquiry in the wake of the Ethiopian crash.

On Wednesday, he declined to comment on the cockpit voice recorder contents, saying they had not been made public.