Lion Air Pilots ‘Desperately Searched Plane Handbook’ Before Boeing 737 Max Crash
LAST MOMENTS
The pilots of a doomed Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX desperately searched the plane’s handbook as they tried to work out why their plane kept lurching downwards, according to new details from the cockpit voice recording. The Lion Air crash killed all 189 people on board in October and is under fresh scrutiny as as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration grounded the plane model last week after a second deadly accident in Ethiopia. The voice-recorder contents from the Lion Air flight have been made public for the first time and have been provided to Reuters. They reveal the pilots reported a “flight control problem” to air-traffic control two minutes into the flight and started to search through a quick reference handbook as they frantically tried to fix it. The jet’s display warned pilots the plane was stalling and the system kept pushing the nose down in response, as the captain fought to gain altitude. The Indian captain was reportedly silent at the end while the Indonesian first officer said “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is greatest.” The recording ends as the plane hits the water.