A preliminary report unveiled fresh details of efforts by pilots to steady the jet as they reported a “flight control problem”, including the captain’s last words to air traffic control asking to be cleared to “five thou” or 5,000 feet. Indonesia’s transport safety committee (KNKT) focused on airline maintenance and training and the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor but did not give a cause for the crash that killed all 189 people on board. “At this stage I do not have the answer,” KNKT investigator Nurcahyo Utomo told reporters.
