Lion Air jet should have been grounded before fatal crash, Indonesia says

A crashed Lion Air jet should have been grounded over a recurrent technical problem before its fatal journey, Indonesian authorities said Wednesday, as details from the new jet's flight data recorder suggested that pilots struggled to control its anti-stalling system.

The preliminary crash report from Indonesia's transport safety agency also took aim at the budget carrier's poor safety culture, but did not pinpoint a definitive cause of the October 29 accident, which killed all 189 people on board.

A final report is not likely to be filed until next year.

The Boeing 737 MAX vanished from radar about 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta, slamming into the Java Sea moments after pilots had asked to return to the capital.

Investigators said Lion Air kept putting the plane back into service despite repeatedly failing to fix a problem with the airspeed indicator, including on its second-last flight from Bali to Jakarta.

"The plane was no longer airworthy and it should not have kept flying," Nurcahyo Utomo, aviation head at the National Transport Safety Committee, told reporters.

The findings will heighten concerns there were problems with key systems in one of the world's newest and most advanced commercial passenger planes.

"But we don't know yet whether it's a Boeing or airline issue," said aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman.

Investigators have previously said the doomed aircraft had problems with its airspeed indicator and angle of attack (AoA) sensors, prompting Boeing to issue a special bulletin telling operators what to do when they face the same situation.

The report confirmed that initial finding, saying the plane's data recorder detected an issue with the AoA.

It also said the plane's "stick shaker" -- which vibrates the aircraft's steering wheel-like control yoke to warn of a system malfunction -- was "activated and continued for most of the fight."
"That didn't cause the crash, but it can cause other problems in the environment they're working in."