Former FAA inspector says it's "peculiar" that pilots didn't declare an emergency

 (From CNN's Darran Simon)

05:20h, 30.10.2018

David Soucie, a former safety inspector with the Federal Aviation Administration. said while is too early to determine the cause of the crash of the Lion Air flight, some things appear to be peculiar to him.

“What’s most peculiar to me is the fact that they didn’t declare an emergency. They just simply said, ‘we’re going back,’" said Soucie, who now works for CNN as an analyst.

Soucie said that declaration gives them priority to return to the airport.

“But when I look at the track of the aircraft after that, the aircraft made a very steep dive after that which is not typical of what they would’ve done,” he said.

“They would have maintained altitude and made that turn and come back to it."

https://edition.cnn.com/asia/live-news/lion-air-plane-crash-updates-intl/index.html