Extra pilot saved Lion Air's Boeing 737 Max 8 a day before fatal crash: Report

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An extra pilot on a Lion Air flight helped avert a disaster on the Boeing 737 MAX 8 just a day before the jet crashed into the Java Sea, according to a Bloomberg report.

The pilot, who was seated on the cockpit jumpseat, gave the flight's crew instructions on disabling on a malfunctioning flight-control system, sources told the news agency.

On October 29, 2018, the next day, a Lion Air Flight under a different crew crashed while flying from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang in Indonesia, killing all 189 people aboard.

Investigators believe the two flights experienced identical malfunctions, the report said.

The "dead-head" pilot told the crew to cut power to the motor driving the plane's nose down, the report added.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the news.

"All the data and information that we have on the flight and the aircraft have been submitted to the Indonesian NTSC. We can't provide additional comment at this stage due the ongoing investigation on the accident," Lion Air spokesman Danang Prihantoro told Bloomberg.

A report by Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) had mentioned that the plane experienced multiple failures previously, which were not fixed.

Representatives for Boeing and the Indonesian safety committee declined the news agency's request for comment.

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 has come under further scrutiny after an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed on March 10, 2019 and killed all 157 people on board.

India, Indonesia, US, UK, Argentina, Singapore and several other countries have grounded Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft following the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

Ethiopian authorities have found similarities between the two fatal plane crashes.