Lion Air CVR Reveals Confusion In The Cockpit

New reports claim that conversations captured by the Lion Air Flight 610 cockpit voice recorder (CVR) confirm that the pilots were unable to diagnose the control issues encountered in the minutes before the accident that claimed the lives of all 189 people onboard on Oct. 29, 2018.

Image: Lion Air

New reports claim that conversations captured by the Lion Air Flight 610 cockpit voice recorder (CVR) confirm that the pilots were unable to diagnose the control issues encountered in the minutes before the accident that claimed the lives of all 189 people onboard on Oct. 29, 2018. Although a complete transcript of the CVR recording has not been released, Reuters reported that its staff had spoken with three people—whose identities were kept anonymous—familiar with the CVR's contents.

The information shared implies that the pilots were focused on discrepancies between the captain's and first officer's displays along with the plane's airspeed. "They didn't seem to know the trim was moving down," one of the sources told Reuters. "They thought only about airspeed and altitude. That was the only thing they talked about." They also said that the captain asked the first officer to check the quick reference handbook. The cockpit voice recorder was recovered in January, more than two months after the crash. The preliminary accident report was released before the CVR was recovered.

Pilots on the 737 MAX's previous flight experienced similar control issues. It was recently reported by Bloomberg that a pilot jump-seating on that flight "diagnosed the problem and told the crew how to disable [the] malfunctioning flight-control system." That flight landed safely, which provides some anecdotal evidence for claims by U.S.-based airlines American and Southwest that even if similar problems did arise with their 737 MAXs, their pilots are trained to safely address such issues. Both airlines also told The Wall Street Journal that the data they had gathered from their fleets of 737 MAXs did not support immediately grounding their aircraft after the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.

As previously reported by AVweb, similarities between the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines accidents led to the grounding of all 737 MAXs in the U.S.—and most of the rest of the world—last week. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has asked the DOT's Inspector General to audit the FAA's approval of the Boeing 737 MAX and it is now being reported that the FBI has joined the investigation. On Monday, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement that the company will soon "release a software update and related pilot training for the 737 MAX that will address concerns discovered in the aftermath of the Lion Air Flight 610 accident."