Lion Air plane collides with lamp post at Indonesian airport, a week after deadly crash

Shehab Khan
Lion Air faulted the airport's aircraft movement control personnel for the incident (file photo): ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images

A Lion Air plane has collided with a lamp post at an airport, one week after another of the airline’s jets crashed in Indonesia killing 189 people.

The Boeing 737-900 was on the runway at Fatmawati airport in Indonesia when its wing crashed into a metal post.

It left a fragment hanging off the aircraft and passengers were forced to evacuate the plane and board another.

The airline faulted the airport’s aircraft movement control personnel who directed the plane to the taxiway.

The incident took place only one week after an Air Lion plane crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta killing all 189 people onboard.

In that incident the plane had experienced airspeed indicator malfunctions on its four previous flights, data from the retrieved black box has revealed.

Indonesian investigators said the sensor was replaced on the Lion Air plane the day before its fatal flight and may have compounded other problems with the aircraft.

The news comes as the US Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency airworthiness directive on how to handle incorrect data from the sensor which investigators believe malfunctioned on the jet.

The directive gives regulatory weight to Boeing’s safety bulletin it sent to operators based on findings from the ongoing Indonesian investigation.

It instructs airlines to make specific changes to flight manual procedures for responding to the problem. Boeing’s bulletin said it was directing flight crews to existing guidelines.

Airline safety experts said pilots are trained to handle a plane safely if crucial sensors fail, while backup systems are usually in place as well.

Todd Curtis, director of the Foundation said there are audio signals and physical warnings that alert the pilot to malfunctioning equipment or other dangers.

“They should have been completely engaged in what was going on inside that cockpit, and any kind of warning that came up, they would have been wise to pay attention to it,” Mr Curtis said.

Agencies contributed to this report