The investigators have identified as a cause of failure for the crash of a Boeing 737 Max in Indonesia design flaws. This emerges from the final report, which was first presented to the families of the victims in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. In the accident about 189 people died about a year ago.
According to the presentation, a malfunction of the control system contributed to the disaster. In addition, there had been insufficient manuals by the US manufacturer in dealing with problems in the on-board system. "Shortcomings" in the communication of the flight crew and the manual control of the aircraft also contributed to the crash.
A Boeing spokeswoman initially refused to comment on the report. Lion Air also declined to comment. The final report will be officially published on Friday.
On October 29, 2018, a 737 Max Lion Air crashed in Indonesia after an aircraft of the same type of Ethiopian Airlines with 157 people had already crashed in March of that same year.
Sensor apparently delivered wrong data
Since then, the focus of the investigation has been on the question of whether there is a connection between the two accidents and what role Boeing's on-board technology played. There had been some evidence that an MCAS control software had caused trouble for the pilots.
The pilots can turn off the system by means of two switches in the cockpit again, but in the case of the Lion Air machine obviously did not happen. Apparently, an externally mounted sensor provided incorrect data. The pilots had tried again and again to pull the machine up - to no avail.
The report states that while the machine was being developed and certified, Boeing had provided information on how to deal with "malfunctions" that were consistent with the guidelines. Nevertheless, they had been "incorrect".
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It also states, "Based on misconceptions about the pilots' response and an incomplete review of the associated effects of multiple flight errors, the reliance on MCAS from a single sensor was considered appropriate." The system was solely focused on this sensor, which made it "vulnerable" to an error.
The 737 Max has been banned after the crashes. The global take-off ban led aircraft manufacturer Boeing to lose billions in the second quarter. With a provision of nearly $ 5 billion, the net loss was $ 2.9 billion. During the course of the day, the US group wants to publish its balance sheet for the third quarter.