Indonesia states that the situation facing the crew of the aircraft Lion Air doomed not appear in the flight manual

JAKARTA / DALLAS (Reuters) – Indonesian investigators said Monday that the Boeing 737 MAX pilots needed more training after they discovered that the situation that would have faced the crew of a Lion Air plane sentenced did not appear in the flight manual of the aircraft.

The American pilots were also unaware of the potential risks, two US pilot unions told Reuters.

The comments shed further light on the areas under scrutiny as investigators prepared to release their preliminary report on 28 or 29 November, a month after the Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX plunged into the sea of Java, making 189 victims on board.

So far, public attention has focused mainly on potential maintenance issues, including a defective "angle of attack" sensor, which is essential to allow the aircraft to fly at right angles. compared to drafts and prevent a stall.

The investigation now seems to focus more on the clarity of US-approved procedures to help pilots avoid the 737 MAX's over-reaction to such data loss and training methods.

Dennis Tajer, 737 ship captain and spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association (APA), who represents the pilots of American Airlines Group Inc., said his union had been informed of the crash of the company. a new system installed by Boeing on the 737 MAX, which could control the dive of the plane. in certain situations to prevent a stall.

"This is information we did not have access to in training or any other manual or material," he said.

A US government official said Boeing should unveil a software update to reduce the risks of the 737 MAX's stall protection system, but said the schedule was not clear.

Boeing declined to comment on a software update but said that he was taking "every step" to fully understand all aspects of the incident and was working closely with the team. investigation and the regulatory authorities involved.

Soerjanto Tjahjono, chairman of the Indonesian Committee of Transport Safety Accident Investigators (KNKT), said on Monday that Indonesian regulators would tighten training requirements as a result of the findings of the investigation.

"We know that because this incident happened, we know we need additional training," he said.

The comments focus on the content of the aircraft manuals and a conversion course that allows the previous generation of Boeing jet aircraft, the 737NG, to upgrade to MAX.

Soerjanto told reporters that the manual did not explain how to handle a situation such as that which occurred in the accident.

Lion Air officials said Monday they have followed a training program approved by US and European regulators.

The approved training was limited to three hours of computer-based training and a familiarization flight, said Lion Air Training Center General Manager, Dibyo Soesilo, during a media visit in the center on Monday.

The October 29 accident was the first accident involving the 737 MAX, an updated version of the Boeing narrow-body aircraft that went into service last year.

CONTROL LIST

The information retrieved from the aircraft's flight data recorder last week led the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to issue an emergency airworthiness directive urging airlines to update their flight manuals .

The directive warned the pilots that a computer on board the Boeing 737 MAX could force the aircraft to descend sharply up to 10 seconds, even in manual flight, which could cause hardship. control of the aircraft.

Pilots could stop this automated response by pressing two buttons if the system behaved unexpectedly, but questions were raised about how prepared they were for such an automatic response and how much time they had to react.

A spokesman for American Airlines said the carrier had received FAA guidance as well as a Boeing newsletter on updating the crew's operations manual. conduct.

Last week, Boeing said the fix for this type of event – known as a "fleeing stabilizer" – was covered by existing procedures.

According to investigators, this issue was not addressed in the user manual, but pilots had access to a checklist designed to disable stray systems when the aircraft began to sting at the wrong time, said Soejono , Lion Air instructor a lot of Indonesians wear only one name.

Experts say the investigators will examine whether the crew has reviewed this checklist and, if so, whether he has had time to cut off the automated dive system while he was flying at a relatively low altitude of 5,000 feet. Pilots from a previous flight would have solved a similar sensor problem.

To fully answer this question, investigators may need to access voice recordings in the cockpit supposed to be hidden in the seabed.

The search for the missing voice recorder in the cockpit continues and could provide important information on human factors related to the crash, said Soerjanto.

The FAA said in a statement that it would take further action if the conclusions of the accident investigation justified it.