Reading through the report via the NYT reminds me strongly of Junger's The Perfect Storm and it's description of the last minutes of the Jolly 110. Specifically

Reading through the report via the NYT reminds me strongly of Junger's The Perfect Storm and it's description of the last minutes of the Jolly 110. Specifically: Task-Saturation. For reference to set-up the situation[0]: "On 30 Oct. 1991, United States Air Force Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk, assigned to the 106th Rescue Wing, nicknamed the Jolly 110, New York Air National Guard, headed out into a hurricane that would become known as “The Perfect Storm.” Aboard were Major C. David Ruvola, pilot; Captain Graham Buschor, co-pilot; Staff Sergeant James R. Mioli, flight engineer; and pararescue jumpers Technical Sergeant John Spillane and Technical Sergeant Arden Rick Smith. Their mission was to attempt a rescue 250 miles (400 km) out to sea. Due to the severity of the storm—a weather buoy located 264 miles (425 km) south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, reported a wave height of 100.7 ft (30.7 m) on 30 Oct., the highest ever recorded in that part of the Atlantic Ocean—the Pave Hawk crew was unable to make the rescue and had to return to their base. Having already refueled from the Lockheed HC-130 Hercules tanker three times during the mission, and with low fuel, a fourth refueling was needed for the helicopter to make it back to the mainland. Because of the the extreme turbulence and lack of visibility, Jolly 110 could not make contact with the refueling drogue trailing behind the airplane. Major Ruvola made more than 30 attempts, but finally both drogues had been damaged by the severe conditions. With just twenty minutes of fuel remaining, Jolly 110 would have to ditch in the middle of “The Perfect Storm.”" Now, from The Perfect Storm: "Ruvola finally breaks out of the clouds at 9:28, only two hundred feet above the ocean. He goes into a hover and immediately calls for the ditching checklist, which prepares the crew to abandon the aircraft. They have practiced this dozens of times in training, but things are happening so fast that the routines start to fall apart.(Aside: for a good look into the utter chaos of helicopter underwater egress, see this video from SmaterEveryday[1]) Jim Mioli has trouble seeing in the dim cabin lighting used with the night vision gear, so he can't locate the handle of the nine-man life raft. By the time he finds it, he doesn't have time to put on his Mustang survival suit. Ruvola calls three times for Mioli to read him the ditching checklist, but Mioli is too busy to answer him, so Ruvola has to go through it by memory. One of the most important things on the list is for the pilot to reach down and eject his door, but Ruvola is working too hard to remove his hands from the controls. In military terminology he has become 'task saturated' and the door stays on. " (pg 184, The Perfect Storm, S. Junger) Now, those Lion Air pilots had better weather, much better, but the time in which they had to react was much less. Though I know nothing about how those cockpits are set-up and what the protocols are, there is a strange similarity to the Jolly 110 ditching and 'Task Saturation'. [0] https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/30-october-1991/ https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/30-october-1991/ [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-53kaP6dZeI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-53kaP6dZeI