Soerjanto Tjahjono, the Head of the transportation safety committee (KNKT) announced that Indonesia will issue a preliminary report scheduled on November 28 or 29 regarding their investigation of the plan of the Lion Air plane crash that killed 189 passengers on board. Investigators said that that pilot needs more training to fly the Boeing 737 after they have discovered that discovering that the incident that the plane crew faced is not included in the plane's flight manual.
The Boeing 737 crashed after it took from Jakarta heading for the city of Pangkal Pinang. Records claim that the incident is the first tragic accident that involves a Boeing 737 Max. The 737 Max series are known as the fastest-selling planes in the Boeing History. The series includes Max 7, Max 8, Max 9, and Max 10 models. The planes that crashed is a Boeing 737 Max 8 and the model has been in commercial use since 2016.
Boeing said in a statement that the company stands ready to provide technical assistance to the accident investigation.
Public's attention is currently generally focused on possible maintenance issues that include a faulty sensor for the 'angle attack' which is an important piece of data that helps aircraft fly at the correct angle based on air currents and it also prevents the plane from stalling.
The recent update on the investigation expands to the clarity of U.S. -approved procedures that helps pilots in preventing the 737 Max as it over-reacts to such data loss. Airline investigators are now focusing on finding methods for training pilots in dealing with the issue.
Tjahjono said that Indonesian regulators might tighten training requirements for pilots as a result of the findings of the investigation. He added that because of the incident they now know that their pilots need more training. He also said that the plane's manual did not include steps to handle situations that the crew faced during the crash.
Lion Air officials released a statement on Monday saying that they had followed a training regime approved by both U.S. and European regulators. According to Dibyo Soesilo, the Lion Air Training Center general manager, the approved training was restricted to three hours of computer-based training and a familiarization flight. The result of the investigation on the 737 Max crash caused the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to issue an emergency directive that urges airlines to update their flight manuals.
