Lion Air plane crash breakthrough – data recorder found

By MiNDFOOD

Indonesian rescue team members carry newly recovered debris of crashed Lion Air flight JT610 at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta, Indonesia, November 3, 2018. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan - RC19CE6343C0
Indonesian rescue team members carry newly recovered debris of crashed Lion Air flight JT610 at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta, Indonesia, November 3, 2018. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan - RC19CE6343C0

Investigators have retrieved hours of data from the flight recorder of the Lion Air plane that crashed off Jakarta on October 29, killing 189 people on board.

Investigators succeeded in retrieving hours of data from a crashed Lion Air jet’s flight recorder as Indonesian authorities on Sunday extended the search at sea for victims and debris.

National Transportation Safety Committee deputy chairman Haryo Satmiko told a news conference that 69 hours of flight data was downloaded from the recorder including its fatal flight.

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet crashed just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta on October 29, killing all 189 people on board in the country’s worst airline disaster since 1997. What exactly went wrong has baffled aviation experts so far but the flight data recovered can hopefully provide some answers.

The first black box, the flight data recorder, was recovered by divers on Thursday in damaged condition and investigators said it required special handling to retrieve its information.

The second black box, the cockpit voice recorder, has not been recovered but searchers are focusing on a particular area based on another, albeit weak, locator signal.

More than 100 body bags of human remains had been recovered. Syaugi said the number would continue to increase and remains were also now washing up on land. He said weak signals, potentially from the cockpit voice recorder, were traced to a location but an object hadn’t been found yet due to deep seabed mud.

Flight tracking websites show the plane had erratic speed and altitude during its 13 minute flight and a previous flight the day before from Bali to Jakarta. Passengers on the Bali flight reported terrifying descents and in both cases the different cockpit crews requested to return to their departure airport shortly after takeoff. Lion has claimed a technical problem was fixed after the Bali fight.

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