The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has called on all airlines to follow Boeing’s advice after Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea last month.
In a statement, the FAA said that it would soon issue an airworthiness directive that will compel all airlines to follow an Operations Manual Bulletin Boeing announced on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg, which obtained a copy of the statement. The agency added that it’s called on other aviation organizations around the world to do the same in their territories.
On Tuesday, Boeing said that it released an Operations Manual Bulletin (OMB) to airlines on how to address problems when an angle of attack, or AOA, sensor provides erroneous readings. The OMB acts as a guide of sorts for pilots and informs them on how they should respond when something goes awry.
The Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea last month, killing 189 people. The flight was set to carry passengers from Bali to Jakarta on the new Boeing 737 Max 8. However, soon after takeoff, the jetliner entered into a nosedive at a speed of 600 miles per hour.
While the investigation is ongoing, it’s believed that the plane reported a problem with its AOA sensor, which measures the risk of a stall. In those cases, the plane’s nose is automatically pointed down to reduce chances of stalling. If something goes wrong in the sensor and it registers a false positive, it’s possible for a plane to enter into a nosedive, similar to what happened on the Lion Air flight.
It’s unclear what’s in the Boeing OMB and how it might address the AOA issue. Boeing did not immediately respond to a Coins2Day request for comment.
