The plane was a brand-new Boeing 737 Max 8, the latest model of Boeing’s workhorse 737 fleet. Its so-called black box, which records flight data, was recovered in early November.

The pilots fought to save the plane almost from the moment it took off, as its nose was repeatedly forced down. They managed to pull the nose back up over and over until finally losing control, leaving the plane to plummet into the ocean at 450 miles per hour.

Data from the plane’s flight data recorder appears to support a theory among investigators that a computerized system Boeing installed on its latest generation of 737 jets to prevent them from stalling instead forced the nose down. The aircraft was recording errant data from one of the two angle-of-attack sensors on its nose, which are designed to record the pitch at which a plane is climbing or descending.

Yet the precise cause of the crash remains unknown, and a preliminary report on the accident released by Indonesian crash investigators in November was notably lacking in significant details. Among other questions, it is still not clear whether the errant data, which was on the pilot’s side of the plane, was attributable to a problem with the angle-of-attack sensor or with the computer that processes the sensor’s information.

The plane’s cockpit voice recorder, known as a C.V.R., could provide further insight into specific steps that the pilots took as the jet’s course became violently erratic. The flight crew requested permission to return to the Jakarta airport but never turned around.