Boeing Is Playing with Our Lives: Wife of Lion Air’s Indian Pilot

Garima alleged that the officials told her in January they needed more information to ground the plane.

Image of a Lion Air jet used for representational purposes.

(Photo: Wikipedia)

Garima Sethi, the widow of Indian pilot of the Lion Air plane that plunged into the sea in October last year, claiming 189 lives, has accused Boeing of “playing with lives” and urged that the Boeing 737 Max 8 plane be grounded, reported The Washington Post.

Garima, wife of the 31-year-old Indian pilot Bhavye Suneja said, the second crash involving the same model could have been prevented if appeals to ground the 737 Max 8 fleet were given more weight by the airline and others.

A Boeing 737 Max plane of the Ethiopian Airlines crashed on 10 March, killing at the 157 people on board.

Garima alleged that the officials told her in January they needed more information to take such a drastic step and reassured that the aircraft was safe, even after several attempts to plead them to ground the plane.

“We tried to do our part, but nobody heard us," she said.

The crash near Jakarta last year opened global probes into potential problems with an anti-stall system on the popular Boeing plane.

Talking about the Ethiopia crash, Garima said she was distressed to learn that the jet had been delivered by Boeing. “It was altogether the same story. I don't have any words,” according to the Washington Post.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of the Lion Air and Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee declined to comment on Garima’s allegations.

‘Pilots Had No Training on the Anti-Stall Software’

A preliminary report from Indonesian experts released in November focused on possible flawed readings by an anti-stall feature on the 737 Max. Investigators believe the system redirected the nose of the plane downward, leaving the cockpit crew unable to override the autopilot commands.

A similar potential cause for the Ethiopian airlines plane crash is suspected, the Washington Post said.

Sethi said, her husband Suneja was a methodical pilot and that plane he was about to pilot on 29 October had experienced mechanical issues on its previous flight.

Suneja’s colleagues had told her that they had no training on the Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), the anti-stall software, she further alleged.

“We suggested if it was a software glitch, why not ground it for a while?” Sethi said, in a meeting with Lion Air officials.

“I'm just looking for justice,” Sethi said, adding that whoever was at fault “should claim their mistakes.”

(With inputs from The Washington Post and IANS.)