Cockpit Voice Recorder of Crashed Lion Air Plane Is Found

God bless these victims. We know enough now that these victims including the pilot and co pilot were aware of impending diaster. I fly a lot and lived in Indonesia for over a decade - so I can imagine but really hate to. Now, about these black boxes. I am no airplane engineer but worked in the oil patch for over 43 years - all in operations. If we knew that a piece of equipment was critical to operations and needed either human intervention or ease of access - we would locate it just to provide for these concerns. It's called ergonomics in our industry. I follow airplane accident investigation as a hobby. Always or mostly always is the case of difficulty of locating these black boxes and their retrieval. Why does not the industry think outside the box - so to speak - to investigate if these boxes be located so that they are easy to reach. For example, in most airplane accidents - recovery teams always find landing gear - because it is so massive and hard to miss. You would think they could locate these boxes near this massive piece of equipment - for ease of access. It's time NTSB, FAA and even Congress ask these questions. Out of the box thinking could just help solve these puzzles faster by locating these boxes faster.

Let's hope the recorder is OK enough to hear what went on in the cockpit during the short but very scary flight. If it is what some experts believe was the cause of the crash - a "safety system" that seemed to have failed to notice it was forcing the plane straight down at 400+ mph to prevent the plane from stalling (!) - then it will be a lesson regarding a software failure the pilots were unable to be override.

Boeing has too much pull and money. They'll walk away from this. Indonesia's shoddy record will be the focal point of any post analysis. Just poor folks who lost their lives. May they rest in peace.

This is certainly a major step forward in the investigation, given the fact that everybody involved has been dragging their feet on the C.V.R. recovery. The ominous part is that "part of the recorder had been damaged". I noticed that the Lion Air 610 flight data recorder, after it was recovered, was kept in a box with a transparent lid. Given the politics of an aircraft investigation it is no wonder. There's a lot riding on what these devices will tell us, and plenty of incentive to tamper with the data. I hope the Indonesians will maintain a robust chain-of-custody.

The aviation industry leads the world in transparency when something goes wrong, like this crash. After the data is reviewed, the NTSB will issue a report that will detail all the issues in this case. The FAA will likely issue new training requirements that will cover what is learned and make flying safer Boeing has a lot to answer for as they changed the way the basic operating system is designed. Envelop protection, like that used on the Airbus, has led to crashes and requires the pilot to be well versed in that system.

An important finding, good work by the Navy divers.

Lion Air made an appalling decision to fly a non-airworthy aircraft, but Boeing deserves a great deal of scorn here-- they designed a system which battled against every natural instinct of the pilots, and was a break from all previous models of 737 controls; on a bright, clear day, the pilots could not keep their plane from slamming itself into the water.

One item in this article jumped out at me: " In the older ones, pilots could help address the problem of the nose being forced down improperly by pulling back on the control column in front of them — a measure that does not work in the 737 Max 8. " That's like disengaging the brakes in a car, while leaving the pedal in place and installing a different braking system. Good luck in an emergency.

FROM THE STORY: Mr. Soejatman said he hoped the cockpit voice recorder would include a recording of the plane’s penultimate flight, in which Lion Air pilots successfully flew to Jakarta from the Indonesian resort island of Bali despite problems with an angle-of-attack sensor. “Was it a wild guess?” he said of the pilots’ ability to overcome the problems. “Did they have certain knowledge, or just instincts?” Why can't the pilots on the previous flight simply be interviewed and tell how they handled the problem that seems to have proved fatal to the subsequent flight?

I'm a pilot, although not an airline pilot. Boeing idiotically should not have complicated the formerly simple process of overriding or disabling autopilot, plus did not call attention to the obviously dangerous change. Lion Air did not pay any attention to the procedure and literally let their pilots fly blind. I suspect other airlines did so as well. Lion Air's maintenance procedures, or lack thereof, is unforgivable. The flight crew did what they were trained to do. THEY did everything humanly possible, while every other entity worked against them.

It is haunting ... and an old story .... of profit more important than concerns of safety. We all fly, we are all concerned ; touched when things go wrong. We live in a world where profit speaks and reigns. Democracy and all that we believed in, has a hard time making itself heard ; now a world seeming out of control. All too often.....