Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX Had Instrument Error Day Before Crash

Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX Had Instrument Error Day Before Crash

BBC is reporting that a maintenance log that they obtained and reviewed found that an instrument error occurred on a Sunday flight on the same Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX that crashed off the coast of Indonesia on Monday morning.  The report suggested it was an issue with the altimeter and an unreliable airspeed indicator.  Control was handed over to the first officer the day before during a flight en route to Jakarta.

Lion Air JT 610 lost contact with air traffic control 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta on a short one-hour flight.  The plane reportedly asked for permission to return to the airport before the plane with 189 passengers and crew members crashed into the sea.  All 189 people onboard are believed to be dead.

Photos have been released of wreckage by the head of Indonesia’s disaster agency:

Beberapa serpihan pesawat Lion Air JT 610 yang jatuh di perairan Karawang. Pesawat membawa 178 penumpang dewasa, 1 penumpang anak-anak dan 2 bayi dengan 2 Pilot dan 5 FA. Basarnas dan Kementerian Perhubungan terus melakukan penanganan. Beberapa kapal tug boad berada di lokasi. pic.twitter.com/Gb6P4zjCQF

— Sutopo Purwo Nugroho (@Sutopo_PN) October 29, 2018

The pilot and first officer of the flight had over 11,000 combined flight hours.  The aircraft was put into service August 15, 2018 and only had 800 hours of flight time.

It is not known if this instrument error had anything to do with the tragic crash that happened Monday morning.  The investigation into the incident will likely be lengthy, and it will be sometime whether we know the cause of the accident for sure.

Initial Story

The Indonesian government has confirmed that a Lion Air flight that lost contact with air traffic control 13 minutes after takeoff has crashed into the sea off the coast of Indonesia.  The flight was scheduled to fly from Jakarta to Pangkalpinang on Bangka Belitung province.  The aircraft was a Boeing 737 MAX.

Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, said, “It has been confirmed that it has crashed.”  Search and rescue operations are currently ongoing.