Ministry Responds to Published CVR Recording of Crashed Lion Air

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Transportation Ministry gave a response to the supposedly leaked audio recording believed to be from Lion Air flight JT 610's cockpit voice recorder. 

The Ministry’s air transport director general Polana B. Pramesti asserts that the official investigation report to the tragic accident has yet been published.

“The source’s authenticity is called into doubt,” said Polana in a text message to Tempo on Thursday, March 21.

The cockpit recording that was published is believed to be from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) belonging to the ill-fated Lion Air flight JT 610 seconds before crashing into the waters of Karawang in West Java on October 29, 2018, killing all 189 people onboard.

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At the time, Lion Air’s Boeing 737 MAX 8 was piloted by Bhavye Suneja and co-pilot Harvino.

Furthermore, Polana said that the official investigation report and its recordings should only be released by the only authorized Indonesian state-institution which is the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT).

Flight observer Gerry Soejatman argues that the source of the circulating Lion Air investigation report published by Reuters is not taking form as an investigation, but rather information sourced from a whistleblower.

Gerry asserts that what was done by the crew of the Lion Air flight JT 610, as heard in the recording, is considered to be normal attempts of a pilot attempting to solve a problem based on the training they received.

FRANCISCA CHRISTY ROSANA