Black Box Reveals The Chaos In The Cockpit Before The Lion Air Plane Crash

An investigative preliminary report released today, 28 November, revealed that the ill-fated Lion Air plane's pilots had fought to maintain the aircraft from the moment it took off from the airport, reported AP News.

The struggle was apparently due to the Boeing 737's nose being repeatedly forced down because of a malfunctioning sensor. Bloomberg reported that the sensor had not been repaired despite it failing on the plane's previous flight.

The computerised system was installed to prevent the plane's nose from rising too high and causing a stall, but had instead forced the nose down due to the automatic system receiving incorrect sensor readings.

The pilots were said to have managed to pull the plane back up multiple times before losing control of it, sending the Lion Air Flight 610 plummeting into the ocean with 189 people on board.

Following the report, Indonesia's transport safety committee (KNKT) explained that it is still "too early" to determine if the anti-stall system was a contributing factor to the crash.

According to Reuters, Indonesian investigators said that the aircraft's manual had not covered how to handle a situation like the one that led to the crash.

However, the pilots did have access to a checklist which outlined how to turn off errant systems when the plane started nosing downwards at the wrong time, said Indonesian Lion Air instructor Soejono.

According to Quartz, a spokesman said that the pilots had requested to turn back about 19km out from take-off, but had not signalled that there was an emergency.

Rescuers and divers worked round-the-clock to find signs of survivors, as family members of the passengers grieved the loss of their loved ones.