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JAKARTA, Indonesia – A brand new Boeing Max 8 aircraft that crashed into the Java Sea last week had problems with its speedometer during its last four flights, Indonesian investigators said Monday.
By analyzing the contents of a flight data recorder found Thursday on the seabed, members of the Indonesian National Committee on Transportation Safety, which is conducting the investigation into the crash of Flight 610 Lion Air, discovered that erroneous speed readings continued for three days, despite the aircraft having been repeatedly allowed to take off.
The Max 8, the latest model of the Boeing 737 workhorse, entered the commercial fleet only last year. The plane that crashed a week ago was delivered to Lion Air, one of the fastest growing low-cost carriers in the world, in August.
"We think this issue is important because there are more than 200 Max aircraft in the world," said Captain Nurcahyo Utomo, principal investigator for the Transportation Safety Committee.
Although there is no indication that there is a systemic problem with speed reading, the new model means that any potential problems may not yet have occurred in the fleets of other carriers.
Besides a potential hardware problem, whether it is computerized sensors or speed measuring instruments, investigators also look at how the aircraft has been repeatedly approved for flights while he was experiencing a constant problem.
"We will study further the cause of the damage and the repairs made," said Captain Nurcahyo.
Lion Air has a troubling record of at least 15 major security failures, but until last week, Indonesia 's largest carrier has not known any problems. fatal accident since 2004. The Indonesian Ministry of Transport is currently conducting a special audit on the company's low-cost operations and safety standards.
It is unclear whether unreliable abnormal speed measurements caused the crash of Lion Air Flight 610. However, abnormal speed measurements can transmit incorrect data to automated systems, which complicates take-offs and defies flight crews, especially when the aircraft is flying over water, where it is more difficult to assess speed of a jet looking out the window.
While the probes, called Pitot tubes, mounted outside the aircraft, must receive several speed readings, the pilots must determine what reading is wrong and make the necessary adjustments.
Previous collisions, such as that of Air France Flight 447 in 2009 over the Atlantic Ocean, were attributed to an initial problem: erroneous speed readings, catalyzing a chain of fatal events exacerbated by the confusion of drivers.
Flight 610 from Lion Air took off from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, on October 29th, bound for the small town of Pangkal Pinang. Less than 15 minutes later, after an irregular flight path, the Max 8 plunged into the sea with 189 people on board.
The plane hit the water so quickly that it was fragmented, investigators said. Divers did not find any bodies intact.
By examining the maintenance log of the penultimate flight of the aircraft the day before the accident, aviation experts had already discovered that the single-aisle jet posed problems in reading the abnormal speed. .
But the confirmation of what precipitated the crash last week will come only by a new inspection of "black boxes", devices that record the movements and data of an aircraft. The flight data recorder found last Thursday measured, among other things, speed, altitude, temperature, flight controls and cockpit steering.
Soerjanto Tjahjojo, head of the transport safety committee, said Monday that the device contained 69 hours of information on 19 flights. Nearly 1,800 parameters were recorded in the black box, he said.
A second black box, which recorded the cockpit conversations, has not yet been found, but Indonesian Navy divers have heard faint creaks from an underwater beacon connected to the aircraft. Flight recorder.
