Lion Air Flight 610 Crash — 2018 aircraft crash in the Java Sea off the coast of Karawang, Indonesia
The crash killed all 189 aboard, exposed fatal flaws in Boeing's MCAS software, and preceded a worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX fleet.
Key Facts
- Total fatalities
- 189 (all on board)
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737 MAX 8
- Time to crash after takeoff
- 13 minutes
- Flight date
- 29 October 2018
- Search area
- 280 km wide km
- FDR recovery date
- 1 November 2018
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The aircraft's angle-of-attack sensor had been miscalibrated due to improper maintenance, feeding erroneous data to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). Boeing had deliberately omitted documentation of MCAS from aircrew materials, so pilots were unaware of its existence or behavior. When the faulty sensor triggered MCAS, the system repeatedly pushed the aircraft's nose downward and the crew did not follow the runaway stabilizer checklist needed to counter it.
On 29 October 2018, Lion Air Flight 610, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 carrying 181 passengers and 8 crew, departed Soekarno–Hatta International Airport bound for Pangkal Pinang. Thirteen minutes after takeoff, MCAS repeatedly activated in response to false AoA sensor data, driving the aircraft into an unrecoverable nose-down attitude. The jet crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 189 people on board.
The crash triggered investigations that exposed systemic failures in Boeing's design and FAA certification of MCAS. Despite initial advisories, similar MCAS-related faults caused Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March 2019, prompting regulators worldwide to ground all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Indonesia's NTSC final report assigned blame to Boeing, the FAA, Lion Air maintenance crews, and sensor supplier Xtra Aerospace, fundamentally reshaping aviation oversight of the MAX.