Lion Air Tragedy

On October 29th, 2018, a Lion Air flight carrying 189 people crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, the nation’s capital. It is was immediately presumed that all on board perished. The flight was on a 1 hour and 10 min flight to Pangkal Pinang, an island off the coast of Sumatra (CBS).

Luckily, searchers were able to capture the black box, which is a box that contains recordings of the pilots for the purpose of analysis after a disaster such as this one. It is reported that nearly 300 soldiers, police, and local fisherman helped out in clearing the debris and looking for potential survivors. While the hopes were higher at the beginning of the search, they now dwindle at the recovery of more and more lifeless corpses. Most were dismembered, hence identification could take up to 4 to 5 days. Those corpses, marked and bagged, have been sent to a coroner to asses any forensic data to help investigators find out what exactly happened (CBS).

Since the accident, a “technical log” from the day before the accident had been obtained showing the possibility of an instrumental flaw. Apparently, upon takeoff, the plane was traveling at 340 knots, which is considerably fast at any point in flight for a 737. Hence, it is suggested that an instrument malfunction, like an airspeed indicator malfunction, possibly had occurred (CBS). Until anyone can prove this, the truth remains a mystery.

Work Cited

“Lion Air Plane Crash off Indonesia: Hope Fades for Survivors after Jet Plunges into Sea.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 29 Oct. 2018, www.cbsnews.com/news/indonesia-plane-crash-lion-air-flight-jt610-aviation-disaster-jakarta-today-2018-10-29-live-updates/.