******* — The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued an ********* airworthiness directive on how to handle erroneous data from a sensor that investigators believe malfunctioned on a new Boeing *** that plunged into the sea in Indonesia, ******* all 189 people onboard.

The directive gives regulatory weight to Boeing’s safety bulletin that it sent to operators of Boeing 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 planes based on findings from the ongoing Indonesian ************* into the Oct. 29 ***** of a ******** ***. FAA directives are usually followed by other ******* regulators internationally.

The FAA said erroneous data from the “angle of ******” sensor, which helps prevent the plane from stalling and diving, could cause flight crew to have difficulty controlling the airplane and lead to “excessive nose-down attitude, significant altitude loss, and possible impact with the terrain.”

The directive instructs airlines to make specific changes to flight manual procedures for responding to the *******. Boeing’s bulletin said it was directing flight crews to existing guidelines.

Indonesian investigators on Wednesday said the sensor was replaced on the ******** plane the day before its ***** flight and may have compounded other problems with the aircraft.

The 2-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff from *******. Both that flight and its Oct. 28 flight from Bali to ******* had erratic speed and altitude shortly after takeoff.

On Wednesday night, ******** aborted a flight when one of its planes damaged a wing tip when it struck a lamp pole before takeoff from Bengkulu. The ******* faulted the airport’s aircraft movement control personnel who directed the plane from the apron to the taxiway.

Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee earlier this week had said the plane that crashed had a malfunctioning airspeed indicator on its last four flights, based on analysis of the flight data recorder. Chairman Soerjanto Tjahjono said the airspeed indicator and sensor problems are related.

********’s first two attempts to address the airspeed ******* didn’t work, and for the ***’s second-to-last flight the “angle of ******” sensors were replaced, Tjahjono said.

On that Oct. 28 flight, from Bali to *******, the pilot’s and copilot’s sensors disagreed by about 20 degrees. The plane went into a sudden dive minutes after takeoff, from which the pilots were able to recover. They decided to fly on to ******* at a lower-than-normal altitude.

On the ***** flight, the plane hit the water at very high speed after the flight crew had been cleared to return to the airport several minutes after takeoff.

“The point is that after the AOA (sensor) is replaced, the ******* is not solved but the ******* might even increase. Is this *****? NTSC wants to explore this,” Tjahjono said.

******* safety experts said pilots are trained to handle a plane safely if those crucial sensors fail and backup systems are generally in place as well.

There are audio signals and physical warnings that can alert the pilot to malfunctioning equipment or other dangers, said Todd Curtis, director of the Airsafe.com Foundation.

“They should have been completely engaged in what was going on inside that cockpit, and any kind of warning that came up, they would have been wise to pay attention to it,” Curtis said.

Investigators are likely focused on how a single sensor’s failure resulted in a faulty command that didn’t take into account information from a second sensor, said John Cox, CEO of Safety Operating Systems.

“We don’t know what the crew knew and didn’t know yet,” Cox said. “We will.”

Indonesia’s search and rescue agency has extended the search until Sunday. Body parts are still being recovered and searchers continue to hunt for the cockpit voice recorder.

Indonesia’s transportation safety committee said it had agreed with Boeing on procedures that the airplane manufacturer should distribute globally on how flight crews can deal with the sensor problems.

The flight procedure recommendations to Boeing were based on how the flight crew responded to problems on the Bali-to-******* flight, said investigator Nurcahyo Utomo.

In an Operations Manual Bulletin, Boeing said it is providing support and technical assistance to the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee and other government authorities responsible for the *************.

The company is director operators to existing flight crew procedures to address circumstances where there is erroneous input from an Angle of ****** (AOA) sensor.

With file from The Associated Press