Originally Posted by
climber314
Perhaps TOO harsh... but which is worse: a crew that failed to aviate or a troubleshooting excursion with passengers and a flying spanner? ATM the flying spanner has been relegated to a footnote in report appendix. Maybe someone isn't being forthright about this person's role? It should be known by now if he was on the flight for positioning, pleasure or some other purpose.
The Preliminary Report, although it reproduces Lion Air's Safety Instruction (Appendix 5.2) which explicitly refers to "one Engineer on board", also makes it clear that he/she was included in the 181 passenger count (which, added to the two pilots and six F/As, gives the published total of 189 fatalities).
That would seem to indicate deadheading/positioning and imply a seat in the cabin, though there's no evidence offered either way for that.
Once the CVR is found, if it emerges that the engineer was in fact in the jumpseat, then that will likely also reveal whether they were either just there as a courtesy, or in an observer/troubleshooting role. If the latter, it's very hard to believe they were doing so on their own initiative and almost certain that someone higher up the management chain would have authorised/instructed their presence up front.