Lion Air flight 610: cockpit voice recorder from doomed plane found

The cockpit voice recorder from a Lion Air crash that killed 189 people has finally been found, along with human remains.

Parts of an engine from the ill-fated Lion Air flight. Picture: AFP

The cockpit voice recorder from Lion Air flight 610 has finally been found, after Indonesian authorities resumed the search for the device last week.

Indonesia’s deputy maritime minister told reporters in Jakarta today the CVR had been located in the Java Sea along with human remains.

The Indonesian government renewed the search, after a mission by a company contracted by Lion Air failed to find the voice recorder.

The airline paid Maritime Construction Services $3.7 million to lead the search and recovery effort, despite the company’s very limited experience.

It’s hoped the CVR will provide further clues as to why the near new Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed on October 29, killing all 189 people on board.

A preliminary report by Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee found the aircraft should not have flown that day after experiencing serious technical problems on the previous flight.

The cockpit voice recorder is expected to reveal whether the pilots understood what was going wrong on the aircraft as a new feature installed by Boeing issued repeated “nose down commands” in response to erroneous angle of attack sensor information.

Indonesian and US pilots have criticised Boeing for not providing more information about the MCAS feature.

The aircraft manufacturer has insisted flight manuals contained all the information needed to troubleshoot any problems.