The doomed Lion Air jet that plunged into the Java Sea last week had experienced faulty airspeed readings during its last four flights.
As it was a brand new jet only in service a few weeks, Indonesian investigators urged manufacturer Boeing Co. and U.S. authorities to check if there is a wider problem across all Boeing 737 MAX family aircraft.
It asked authorities ‘to take necessary steps to prevent similar incidents, especially on the Boeing 737 Max, which number 200 aircraft all over the world.’
Investigators from Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee were able to access the flight data recorder to check airspeed data from the previous flights.
Investigators still have not discovered if it lhad any bearing on the deadly crash just minutes after taking off.
Safety analysts said faulty airspeed readings alone would not neccessarily result in a crash.
The second black box which records pilot voice data has still not been recovered from the sea bed.
Only when that is accessed will a clear picture be given of what happen immediately before the crash.
"We have said there’s a technical problem but we also want to know what they were discussing in the cockpit and what they were doing," said Soerjanto Tjahjono, chief of the NTSC.
"Cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder are both important to reveal the truth in this case."
Airspeed was reported faulty on the previous flight from Denpasar, Bali to Jakarta but it was given the all-clear to resume flying after a maintenance check.
The transport ministry ordered a review of Lion Air’s maintenance unit and has already suspended several maintenance managers until the investigation is complete.
