Design, oversight lapses behind deadly crash of Lion Air Boeing 737 in Indonesia

Indonesian experts found that design and oversight lapses were main reasons of the last year’s deadly crash of a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX, Sputnik news agency quoted media reports that cited sources familiar with a final report’s draft.

The deadly crash of a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 took place in Indonesia on October 29, 2018, killing all 189 people on board. The plane, which was headed for the city of Pangkal Pinang on the Indonesian island of Bangka, lost contact with air traffic control 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta’s airport and fell into the sea. In March, the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee said that up to 90 percent of the needed data had already been collected to make a final report on the crash.

Among other factors that led to the catastrophe were a series of pilot’s errors and maintenance mistakes, The Wall Street Journal reported. According to the media, a final version of the report will be released in November.

Boeing’s representative told The Wall Street Journal that the company continued to assist the Indonesian authorities in drafting the report.

Two Boeing 737 MAX aircraft crashed over the past year – the first in Indonesia in October 2018 and the second in Ethiopia in March. The second tragedy led to world aviation authorities and carriers either grounding all 737 MAX series aircraft or closing their airspace to them.

— BERNAMA