Recovered CVR May Reveal Cause of JT610 Crash

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JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Authorities have finally recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of Lion Air flight JT610, registration code PK-LQP, which crashed on Oct. 29, 2018 into the Java Sea off the coast of Karawang, West Java, shortly after takeoff from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Data on the CVR could reveal the cause of the plane crash.

A team from the Navy’s Kopaska elite frogman unit and the 1st Fleet underwater diving command has recovered the CVR of Lion Air flight JT610, which crashed on Oct. 29, 2018 into the sea off Karawang, West Java. The CVR was recovered from the sea on Monday (1/14/2019) at 9:18 a.m. The KRI Spica-934 of the Navy’s Pushidrosal (hydrography and oceanography center) was involved in recovering the CVR.

The data retrieved from the CVR will complement earlier analysis of the flight data recorder (FDR), which was recovered on Nov. 1, 2018. The CVR and the FDR comprise the two parts of the so-called black box that is installed on each aircraft. The FDR monitors flight parameters including altitude, speed and wind direction, while the CVR records all sounds in the cockpit, including conversations among flight crew members, radio transmissions and engine noise.

National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) chairman Soerjanto Tjahjono said that analyzing the CVR would depend on the complexity of the data on it, which could include conversations, situational information and other cockpit activities. “Hopefully, the analysis will not take too long. Once it is complete and we have a final report, the findings will be released. Hopefully, in less than a year, the public will learn the cause of the Lion Air PK-LQP crash,” he said.

Search crew on the KRI Spica-934 had 15 days left to locate the CVR from the start of the operation on Jan. 8, because the CVR’s ping would be active for only 90 days. The crew managed to locate the CVR on the seventh day of the operation.

The dive team under Capt. Iwan Churniawan was in disbelief that they had finally located the submerged CVR. At first, they thought the orange object was just debris and that the search was not over.

Divers Iwan, Second Sgt. Satria Margono Susanto, First Seaman Debi Susanto and First Seaman Tri Agus, as well as other military personnel, took turns diving for 30 minutes each. “We have 25 divers in all and make 10 dives daily,” said Iwan.

Satria found the CVR. He spotted the orange object, which he first believed to be debris, buried under 20 centimeters of mud on the seabed. “Whenever we spotted something orange, we simply tried to retrieve it. As it turned out, this [object] was the actual CVR,” he said.

Pushidrosal chief Rear Adm. Harjo Susmoro said that the KNKT had narrowed down the targeted search area for the CVR to 25 square meters in the waters off

Karawang. The KRI Spica-934, equipped with a variety of sophisticated devices, helped map the area.

Spica-934 began mapping with a multibeam echosounder (MBES) to scan the seabed. Afterwards, the sub-bottom profiling (SBP) device was used to determine the condition of ocean floor layers.

More accurate

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi expressed hope that the recovered CVR would help reveal the cause of the Lion Air JT610 crash. Investigators would analyze the combined data from the CVR and the FDR to determine what had occurred second by second in the aircraft to compile more accurate analysis on what had caused the plane to crash. “I hope the KNKT can move quickly to analyze the CVR. After the investigation, the KNKT can provide recommendations. Everyone is waiting for this for future evaluations,” he said.

Aviation expert Alvin Lie said that accessing the CVR would require a day or two, after which analyzing the voice recordings would require 10 to 11 months. “[Investigators] will listen to not only the voices of the pilot and the first officer. They must also analyze the engine noise and other sounds, including the possible sound of the doors or the fuselage breaking. Not all the sounds are audible to the [human] ear. Sophisticated equipment is needed,” Alvin said.

Air transportation director general Polana Banguningsih Pramesti of the Transportation Ministry said that it was critical to determine the cause of the Lion Air crash. “We will use our findings for for evaluation purposes and to prevent similar incidents,” she said.

Rights of victims’ families

The families of the victims said they hoped for progress in the air crash investigation. Dony Wijaya, 39, who lost his wife and two children, said that the recovered CVR would help conclude the investigation. “We hope that Lion Air will soon provide us with unconditional [insurance] payment, which is our right,” he said.

Bias, 27, of Pondok Kopi, East Jakarta, shared Dony’s sentiments, and hoped that the recovered CVR would help clear up insurance claims for the victims’ next of kin. The victims’ families are yet to receive Rp 1.3 billion (US$92,039.38) in combined insurance payout from the airline.

Separately, Lion Air Group managing director Daniel Putut Kuncoro said that he hoped the recovered CVR would spur the crash investigation into the JT610. He said that insurance payments would continue to be made to victims’ families, and that the airline was still verifying information on the victims’ families.

“The insurance payment process is ongoing. Insurance payments have been made to the families of 36 victims,” he said (JOG/ART/EDN/ARN/E04/E07/E17/E19/E22)

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