NEW DELHI: “Allahu Akbar”- the last words of the pilot of a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX before plane plunged into sea, revealed in cockpit voice recording, according to Reuters reports.
Along with the news, the first report of the pilots’ conversation from Lion Air crash in October 2018, that claimed 189 people on board emerged on Wednesday.
According to the cockpit sound recorder, the 31-year-old pilot and 41-year-old first officer ‘desperately searched the plane’s handbook,’ two of the sources said.
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“It is like a test where there are 100 questions and when the time is up you have only answered 75,” one of the sources said. “So you panic. It is a time-out condition,” reported Reuters.
The Indian-born captain Bhavye Suneja remained silent and the Indonesian first officer uttered “Allahu Akbar” or “God is greatest”, according to the account of the recording issued by Reuters. The recording ends as the plane crashed into the sea.
“Allahu Akbar” is a common Islamic phrase in the majority-Muslim country that can be used to express shock or distress.
The Boeing-737 MAX, which went into service just months ago, vanished from radar 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta, plunging into the Java Sea moments after it had asked to return to the Indonesian capital.
Earlier, video footage apparently filmed at the scene of the crash showed a slick of fuel on the surface of the water and pictures showed what appeared to be an emergency slide and bits of wreckage bearing Lion Air’s logo.
Lion, a low-cost airline which has engaged in a huge expansion in recent years, has been involved in a number of incidents including a fatal 2004 crash and a collision between two Lion Air planes at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta airport.