The Lion Air jetliner that plunged into the Java Sea last week had to put up with a faulty air speed indicator on three consecutive previous flights as well as its final one, said Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT).
It also said the impact with which the Oct 29 flight crashed into the sea was more devastating than that of the AirAsia flight that fell into the waters four years ago.
All 189 passengers on board Lion Air Flight JT610 are feared dead after the plane crashed 13 minutes after take-off from Jakarta.
The Boeing 737 Max 8 plane was bound for Pangkal Pinang.
KNKT, Boeing and the US National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) are discussing this issue, KNKT senior investigator Nur Cahyo Utomo said yesterday, adding that there are more than 200 Boeing 737 Max 8 planes operating worldwide.
On the topic of the faulty air speed indicator, he said: "We have yet to find out what the problem is exactly, whether it is with the measurement device, computer or sensor device."
Earlier yesterday, KNKT chief Soerjanto Tjahjono said that judging from the damage to the plane's main turbine engine, it appeared that the aircraft had broken into pieces after smashing into the water at high speed.
"The Lion Air crash is more devastating than AirAsia's," he told Elshinta radio.
"Lion Air fell hard into the sea at high speed, while the AirAsia (plane) stalled and glided into the sea," he said, referring to AirAsia Flight QZ8501, which crashed into the Java Sea, off Borneo, 40 minutes after take-off from Surabaya. There were 162 people on board the Singapore-bound flight. "At impact, in the Lion Air case, the engine was running at high speed."
Some experts have said that the Boeing 737 Max 8 plane nosed downward so abruptly that it may have hit speeds of 1,000kmh or more before slamming into the sea.
The search team has recovered a flight data recorder, both the engines, a part of the landing gear, body parts of victims and personal belongings in a week-long search which was extended for three more days on Sunday.
Meanwhile, KNKT has managed to download data on the plane's past 19 flights from the flight data recorder, said Mr Soerjanto.
KNKT also disclosed yesterday that search teams have not been able to detect any signal from the missing cockpit video recorder (CVR) over the past two days.
The voice recorder would reveal communications between the pilot and the co-pilot in the lead-up to the crash.
A senior official at the national search and rescue agency (Basarnas) told The Straits Times that the device was likely buried in the ocean floor and they were hoping that currents would free it from the mud so that the signal could be picked up again.
He added that even when the signal from the cockpit voice recorder had been detected in the early days of the search, it was weak as the device was covered with mud.
Meanwhile, the remains of the victims now lie in 164 body bags. Fourteen victims have been identified by DNA tests and their personal belongings. Others are still being tested.
The Indonesian Transport Ministry said the authorities are also conducting a "special audit" of the standard operating procedures of the budget airline, the flight crew's qualifications and coordination with industry stakeholders.
The government has already ordered a review of Lion Air's repair and maintenance unit, and suspended several managers as it emerged that the ill-fated jet had reported some technical issues on a flight from Bali to Jakarta a day before the crash.
