CHICAGO/WASHINGTON/JAKARTA ¨C Investigators are beginning the grim task of determining why a brand-new Boeing Co. 737 Max jet flown by Indonesia¡¯s Lion Air plunged into the Java Sea minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board.
Divers are searching for submerged wreckage of the plane, along with flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders documenting the aircraft¡¯s final moments. The accident is the first for Boeing¡¯s most-advanced 737, which began flying commercially last year, and is the worst commercial aviation disaster in three years.
There were already hints of possible causes: a request by pilots to return to the airport, a maintenance issue on a previous flight and erratic air speed tracked before the jet¡¯s final dive. But the limited and sometimes contradictory information about the flight doesn¡¯t obviously match any previous accidents, said Steve Wallace, the former head of accident investigations at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
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