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JAKARTA • A preliminary report on the causes of the Lion Air Flight 610 crash will be released tomorrow. But even if the mystery is disappearing, one thing is clear: investigators and aviation experts say: few airlines were less prepared to deal with the crisis than Lion Air.
Interviews with dozens of members of Lion Air management and air and ground crews, as well as Indonesian investigators and airline analysts, paint a picture of a carrier so obsessed with growth that it failed to establish an adequate safety culture.
The notorious security case of Lion Air, the largest Indonesian carrier, is back in the air after the crash of Flight 610, a few minutes after takeoff on October 29, leaving 189 dead on board.
Investigators are trying to figure out what a deadly alchemy of factors pushed a new Boeing plane to plunge into the water at over 640 km / h.
They examine whether Boeing has not adequately explained the modifications made to the aircraft, a new 737 Max 8 model; how Lion Air handled the repeated failures of aircraft data readings several days before the accident; and if the pilot training or confusion may have been brought into play in a case where there are only a few seconds to save the aircraft and its occupants.
Lion Air has not responded to repeated requests for comments regarding specific cases in which former employees and government investigators said the company had breached security standards.
Investigators are investigating whether Boeing has not adequately explained the modifications made to the aircraft, a new model 737 Max 8; how Lion Air handled the repeated failures of aircraft data readings several days before the accident; and if the pilot training or confusion may have been brought into play in a case where there are only a few seconds to save the aircraft and its occupants.
Mr. Frank Caron, appointed head of security for Lion Air between 2009 and 2011 on behalf of insurance companies, said the carrier was experiencing on average a major technical problem every three days, while most of its Park was new.
"The acquisition of all the latest generation of advanced engineering will be futile if you do not have systems in place that prioritize security," he added.
Mr. Caron said that in his first month at Lion Air, insurance companies had been shown logbooks that significantly underestimated the number of hours worked by pilots.
Members of the company's flight and maintenance crews, speaking on condition of anonymity in order not to lose their jobs, said they were pressured to keep duplicate newspapers in order to hide the overwork and inattention brought to safety.
Over the years, Lion Air jets have clashed with a cow, a pig and, most embarrassingly, between them.
Two days in a row in 2011, the carrier's planes skidded on the same runway.
In 2013, a Lion Air flight landed in the ocean rather than at Bali Airport.
"There are so many bad stories about Lion that it's hard to know where to start," said Ms. Ruth Simatupang, former investigator of the Indonesian National Committee for Transportation Safety.
Mr. Edward Sirait, president of Lion Air Group, denied that the company takes shortcuts or does not contain logbooks. In an interview, he said that society has two priorities: growth and security.
"When we grow, we think of all the markets we need to get," he said. "But we are still developing in line with our fleet, our human resources, our crew and our maintenance facilities."
Mr. Sirait added that the Lion Air pilots were "professional" and would not keep double logbooks.
NY TIMES
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