Lion Air crash: Plane ‘was not airworthy’
A Lion Air jet that crashed last month killing 189 people wasn’t airworthy and should have been grounded, Indonesian investigators have claimed.
Technical problems had been reported on previous flights before the Boeing 737 Max aircraft crashed into the Java Sea shortly after taking off from Jakarta on October 29.
A preliminary report by the National Transport Safety Committee suggests that Lion Air put the 737 back into service despite it having had problems on previous flights, including one from Bali to Jakarta.
"During [that] flight, the plane was experiencing a technical problem but the pilot decided to continue," Nurcahyo Utomo, aviation head at the National Transport Safety Committee, told reporters.
The report outlines several maintenance procedures that were carried out in response to those problems.
"In our opinion, the plane was no longer airworthy and it should not have continued," added Utomo. However, the report itself does not state that conclusion. It says that pilots appeared to have struggling with the airline’s anti-stall automated system, which is a new feature in the 737 Max aircraft type.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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