Lion air ends Boeing’s second black box search

Lion Air said on Thursday it had ended its search for the second black box voice recorder from its Boeing 737 MAX jet that crashed into the Java Sea. The crash, the world’s first of a Boeing Co 737 MAX jet and the deadliest of 2018, killed all 189 people on board.

The main wreckage and cockpit voice recorder, one of two so-called black boxes, were not recovered in an initial search. Contact with flight JT610 was lost 13 minutes after it took off from the capital Jakarta heading north to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang.

A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT), however, said on Thursday the agency would to start its own search for the black box as soon as feasible.

The CVR is likely to hold vital clues that could give investigators insight into the actions of the pilots.

Lion Air said in December that it was funding a $2.6 million search for the second black box, using the offshore supply ship MPV Everest.

Lion Air Group Spokesman Danang Mandala told agencies on Thursday that the search using the ship had ended on Dec. 29 at 23:59 p.m. local time.

The family of the Indonesian co-pilot of the flight filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Friday against Boeing in Chicago, adding to litigation piling up against the manufacturer in its hometown.

A preliminary report by KNKT focused on airline maintenance and training and the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor but did not give a cause for the crash.

The lawsuit alleges that the Lion Air-operated Boeing 737 MAX 8 was unreasonably dangerous because its sensors provided inconsistent information to both the pilots and the aircraft. At least two other lawsuits have been filed against Boeing in Chicago by the victims.