The National Transportation Safety Committee’s (KNKT) preliminary investigation into Lion Air flight JT610 has found that the plane’s airspeed indicator malfunctioned prior to the crash last week. The committee, however, has yet to conclude whether the technical problem was the sole cause of the accident, which killed all 189 people on board.

KNKT chief Soerjanto Tjahjono said a flight data recorder (FDR) — retrieved by a joint search and rescue team on Nov. 1 — had recorded 69 hours of the plane’s data from 19 flights, including flight JT610, which was scheduled to fly to Depati Amir Airport, Bangka Belitung Islands, from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Tangerang, Banten, before it crashed into the Java Sea on the morning of Oct. 29.

The FDR detected an abnormality in the airspeed indicator in the aircraft’s last four flights, he added.

“We are currently looking further into actions from Lion Air after they heard about the technical malfunction prior to the aircraft’s final departure last Monday. We want to know if they took note of the malfunction at all,” Soerjanto told the press in Jakarta on Monday.

“To look deeper into the nature of the malfunction, our joint investigation team has been actively conducting interviews with representatives from the airline, as well as plane mechanics and pilots on the previous three flights as they dealt with the same technical failure,” he said.

Soerjanto said a testimony from Lion Air regarding the airspeed indicator was crucial to learn whether the airline had taken precautionary measures to address the technical issue before it cleared the plane to depart on Oct. 29.

“We have ruled that the [airspeed malfunction] was a ‘repetitive problem’, in which case the airline was obligated to dispatch its mechanics to immediately deal with the technical failure before clearing the plane for another flight,” he said.

Between Oct. 14 and Oct. 28, the aircraft was used for several flights, including ones to Denpasar, Bali; Balikpapan, East Kalimantan; Medan, North Sumatra; and Makassar, South Sulawesi, according to data from flight tracking service FlightAware.

KNKT flight accident investigation head Nurcahyo Utomo said standard procedures dictated that pilots must write down a list of technical issues they encountered in a previous flight. Such a list is expected to be used by airline mechanics to immediately fix any problems.

“It must be noted that, as of now, we simply rule the airspeed indicator malfunction as a technical defect. We have yet to determine conclusively whether the malfunction alone caused the plane to crash,” Previously, it was reported that flight JT610 had frantically changed altitude, as well as gained and decreased speed en route to its destination. The abnormality had been attributed to the malfunctioning airspeed indicator, according to Nurcahyo.

Answering to speculation, Nurcahyo said, “One thing is for sure, the aircraft remained intact before it hit the water at high speed. It broke apart upon impact. It did not explode mid-air,” he said.

The investigation into the downed flight entered its eighth day on Monday. Previously, the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) scheduled an additional three days of joint operations, which would focus on recovering the bodies of the victims and the still-missing cockpit voice recorder (CVR).

Meanwhile, families of the crash victims have been seeking closure as there are still many unidentified bodies, even after a week of search efforts. As of Sunday, there had been 138 bodies found. Of the 138, only 14 victims had been identified.

The tragedy took an emotional toll on Basarnas chief Marshal M. Syaugi, who has been leading the joint search efforts since Oct. 29.

Syaugi visibly held back tears as he addressed grieving families during a press conference on Monday afternoon.

“We will not give up the search. We hope you will never stop praying for the success of our operations,” he told the families in Jakarta.

Popular

Java airports grounded by low demand, poor planning

'Dialogue' must be at heart of China, Australia ties, PM tells Xi

Rethinking ocean finance