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   From: burr-head.airlines@cnn.com   
      
   It is the first time the voice recorder contents from the Lion   
   Air flight have been made public. The three sources discussed   
   them on condition of anonymity.   
      
   Just two minutes into the flight, the first officer reported a   
   “flight control problem” to air traffic control and said the   
   pilots intended to maintain an altitude of 5,000 feet, the   
   November report said.   
      
   The first officer did not specify the problem, but one source   
   said airspeed was mentioned on the cockpit voice recording, and   
   a second source said an indicator showed a problem on the   
   captain’s display but not the first officer’s.   
      
   The pilots of a doomed Lion Air Boeing 737 Max scoured a   
   handbook as they struggled to understand why the jet was   
   lurching downwards, but ran out of time before it hit the water,   
   three people with knowledge of the cockpit voice recorder   
   contents said.   
      
   The investigation into the crash, which killed all 189 people on   
   board in October, has taken on new relevance as the U.S. Federal   
   Aviation Administration (FAA) and other regulators grounded the   
   model last week after a second deadly accident in Ethiopia.   
      
   Investigators examining the Indonesian crash are considering how   
   a computer ordered the plane to dive in response to data from a   
   faulty sensor and whether the pilots had enough training to   
   respond appropriately to the emergency, among other factors.   
      
   It is the first time the voice recorder contents from the Lion   
   Air flight have been made public. The three sources discussed   
   them on condition of anonymity.   
      
   Reuters did not have access to the recording or transcript.   
      
   A Lion Air spokesman said all data and information had been   
   given to investigators and declined to comment further.   
      
   The captain was at the controls of Lion Air flight JT610 when   
   the nearly new jet took off from Jakarta, and the first officer   
   was handling the radio, according to a preliminary report issued   
   in November.   
      
   Just two minutes into the flight, the first officer reported a   
   “flight control problem” to air traffic control and said the   
   pilots intended to maintain an altitude of 5,000 feet, the   
   November report said.   
      
   The first officer did not specify the problem, but one source   
   said airspeed was mentioned on the cockpit voice recording, and   
   a second source said an indicator showed a problem on the   
   captain’s display but not the first officer’s.   
      
   The captain asked the first officer to check the quick reference   
   handbook, which contains checklists for abnormal events, the   
   first source said.   
      
   For the next nine minutes, the jet warned pilots it was in a   
   stall and pushed the nose down in response, the report showed. A   
   stall is when the airflow over a plane’s wings is too weak to   
   generate lift and keep it flying.   
      
   The captain fought to climb, but the computer, still incorrectly   
   sensing a stall, continued to push the nose down using the   
   plane’s trim system. Normally, trim adjusts an aircraft’s   
   control surfaces to ensure it flies straight and level.   
      
   “They didn’t seem to know the trim was moving down,” the third   
   source said. “They thought only about airspeed and altitude.   
   That was the only thing they talked about.”   
      
   Boeing declined to comment on Wednesday because the   
   investigation was ongoing.   
      
   The manufacturer has said there is a documented procedure to   
   handle the situation. A different crew on the same plane the   
   evening before encountered the same problem but solved it after   
   running through three checklists, according to the November   
   report.   
      
   But they did not pass on all of the information about the   
   problems they encountered to the next crew, the report said.   
      
   The pilots of JT610 remained calm for most of the flight, the   
   three sources said. Near the end, the captain asked the first   
   officer to fly while he checked the manual for a solution.   
      
   About one minute before the plane disappeared from radar, the   
   captain asked air traffic control to clear other traffic below   
   3,000 feet and requested an altitude of “five thou”, or 5,000   
   feet, which was approved, the preliminary report said.   
      
   As the 31-year-old captain tried in vain to find the right   
   procedure in the handbook, the 41-year-old first officer was   
   unable to control the plane, two of the sources said.   
      
   The flight data recorder shows the final control column inputs   
   from the first officer were weaker than the ones made earlier by   
   the captain.   
      
   “It is like a test where there are 100 questions and when the   
   time is up you have only answered 75,” the third source said.   
      
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