KNKT Compares Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air Crash

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) outlined several differences between the deadly plane crash of Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air that used the same type of aircraft, Boeing 737 Max 8.

KNKT head Surjanto Tjahjono said that the aircraft altitude of the first and the second crash was different when both went off the radar. Lion Air JT-610 submerged to the waters of Karawang after it lost contact at the height of 5,000 feet, while Ethiopian Airlines ET-302 crashed from the altitude of 800 to 1,000 feet.

“In terms of plane altitude, Lion Air was at 5,000 ft, while this [Ethiopian Airlines] at 800-1,000 ft. Addis Ababa airport elevation is 7,200 ft,” said Surjanto Tuesday, March 12, in the sideline event of the 2019 Indonesia Aviation Training & Education Conference.

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As for the time, ET-302 Boeing 737 Max 8 went down just five minutes after it took off. So KNKT could not say that there was a similarity between both incidents because Lion Air JT 610 crashed just 10 minutes after it took off.

“At the altitude of 800 ft, it means the jet had just taken off, and the landing gear was still down, or perhaps on the closing transition, and the flight had not up yet,” Surjanto added.

Ethiopian Airlines with a tail number ET 302 fell at Ejere, 50 kilometers in the south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Sunday morning, March 10. A total of 157 passengers died, including one Indonesian national named Harina Hafitz.

Prior to the tragic incident, Indonesia’s Lion Air flight JT 610 crashed into the Karawang waters in West Java, on Monday, October 29, killing all 188 passengers and its crew members.

The initial investigation on Lion Air JT 610 showed that the crash caused by damages in the airplane’s automatic control system and the faulty angle of attack (AoA) sensor that pilots and co-pilots were not aware of.

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