Crashed Lion Air Jet’s Recorder Has Two Hours of Cockpit Voices

(Bloomberg) -- Indonesian investigators will start analyzing next week more than two hours of conversation held in the cockpit voice recorder of a jet that crashed into the Java Sea in October as they seek to unravel the cause of the nation’s worst aviation disaster in two decades.

The National Transportation Safety Committee expects to finish transcribing 124 minutes of recording by Tuesday, Nurcahyo Utomo, the lead investigator at the agency, said by phone on Friday. The quality of the data from the final flight that lasted less than 15 minutes is good , he said.

Investigators may take two to three months to analyze the recording in conjunction with the findings from the flight data recorder recovered in November, according to NTSC’s Deputy Chairman Haryo Satmiko. Lion Air’s flight JT610, a Boeing 737 Max jet, nose-dived into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff Oct. 29, killing all 189 on board.

Lion Air crash shows challenges of Asia’s budget airline boom

Poor safety procedures and the inability of pilots to gain control of a malfunctioning aircraft may have contributed to the crash, according to a preliminary probe report. The findings didn’t specify the cause of the tragedy but it recommended that Lion Air improve its safety culture.

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.