December 24, 2022
The country's transport minister says the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines plane crash which killed 157 people was caused by a flight software failure as suspected, citing the investigators' final report.
The crash of the Nairobi-bound Boeing 737 MAX six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019, which killed all passengers and crew aboard, triggered the global grounding of the MAX and the worst crisis in Boeing's history.
It came just months after the October 2018 crash of a 737 MAX operated by Lion Air in Indonesia, which killed 189 people when it crashed moments after leaving Jakarta airport. — AFP
March 9, 2020
US aviation regulators plan to require Boeing to rewire all 737 MAX aircraft before allowing the troubled planes fly again, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
The MAX has been grounded worldwide since an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after take-off last March, less than six months after the same model was involved in a similar fatal accident in Indonesia.
Both accidents saw uncontrolled drops in the aircraft's nose in the moments before the planes crashed, which investigators have blamed on the model's anti-stall flight system.
Regulators have since concluded that the current wiring layout violated safety standards to prevent short-circuits that could cause similar sharp drops in aircraft pitch, the newspaper said Sunday.
The order to modify the wiring would apply to the nearly 800 MAX plans already produced, including those already in the hands of airlines, according to the report. — AFP
April 4, 2019
The Ethiopian transport minister says the crew of the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed last month killing 157 people, repeatedly followed procedures recommended by Boeing, but were unable to regain control of the jet.
"The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer but was not able to control the aircraft," says Dagmawit Moges, unveiling results of the preliminary probe into the crash. — AFP
March 29, 2019
Investigators probing the fatal crash of a Boeing 737 Max in Ethiopia have reached a preliminary conclusion that a suspect anti-stall system activated shortly before it nose-dived to the ground, the WSJ reports citing people familiar with the matter.
The findings were based on flight recorder data and represented the strongest indication yet that the system, known as MCAS, malfunctioned in both the Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10 and the Lion Air crash in Indonesia last year, the Wall Street Journal says.
The two crashes killed a total of 346 people. — AFP
March 14, 2019
French investigators have received the black boxes from the Boeing 737 MAX that crashed east of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, killing all 157 people on board, France's BEA airline safety agency says.
Ethiopian authorities had requested French help to analyze the content of the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder to discover what caused the Ethiopian Airlines flight to plunge to the ground just minutes after takeoff on Sunday.
March 14, 2019
US authorities say that new evidence showed similarities between Sunday's deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 and a fatal accident in Indonesia in October. The weekend crash killed all 157 people aboard.
The ban on the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft became worldwide after US President Donald Trump joined Canada and other countries in grounding the aircraft, and the black box flight recorders from the doomed plane were flown to France for analysis. — AFP
March 14, 2019
Ethiopian Airlines says that the black box flight recorders from the Boeing 737 MAX 8 that crashed with 157 people on board have been flown to Paris for analysis.
An Ethiopian delegation led by Accident Investigation Bureau(AIB) has flown the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) to Paris, France for investigation.
— Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) March 14, 2019
Urgency is mounting to determine the causes of Sunday's crash as Boeing finds its entire fleet of the model grounded after it emerged the plane experienced similar difficulties to an Indonesian Lion Air flight in October, which also crashed minutes after takeoff. — AFP
March 13, 2019
Ethiopia does not have the equipment to analyze the black boxes from Sunday's deadly Ethiopian Airlines plane crash, and is considering sending them abroad, a spokesman for the airline says.
"It could be sent abroad because there is no equipment to read it here," says spokesman Biniyam Demssie. — AFP
March 13, 2019
The United States says there is "no basis" to ground Boeing 737 MAX airliners, after a second deadly crash involving the model in less than five months prompted governments worldwide to ban the plane.
Despite the aviation giant's assurances that the plane is safe and reliable, the European Union, Britain and India joined China and other countries grounding the plane or banning it from their airspace as they await the results of the investigation into the crash.
But the US has so far refused to take similar action against the American aerospace giant's best-selling workhorse aircraft.
A new Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 went down minutes into a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board.
That followed the October crash of a new Lion Air jet of the same model in Indonesia, which killed 189 people shortly after takeoff from Jakarta. — AFP
March 12, 2019
US federal aviation authorities said Monday they will order Boeing to modify its 737 MAX 8 aircraft, including anti-stalling software and maneuvering system updates, after the second deadly incident involving one of those planes in five months.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it "anticipates mandating these design changes... no later than April," although it did not ground the fleet. — AFP
March 12, 2019
Shares of Boeing plummeted by more than 10 percent Monday in electronic trading ahead of the opening of trading on Wall Street, the day after the crash of a Boeing 737 Max 8 in Ethiopia killed 157 people.
By 1220 GMT, Boeing had dropped to $379.25 a share, down 10.25 percent, in what would be a major drag on the Dow Jones index. If confirmed at the opening of trading, Boeing will have lost $24 billion in market value in a single session. — AFP
March 12, 2019
Investigators have recovered both black box recorders from the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 that crashed just outside Addis Ababa, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew, the carrier said Monday.
"The Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of ET302 have been Recovered," the state-owned airline announced on Twitter. — AFP
March 12, 2019
Investigators have recovered one of two black box recorders on the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 that crashed just outside Addis Ababa Sunday, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew, Ethiopian state media reported.
"#BreakingNews: The black box voice recorder from Ethiopian Airlines aircraft which crashed yesterday has been recovered: #Ethiopia," FANA Broadcasting Corporate said on its Twitter page. — AFP
Ethiopia's parliament has declared Monday a day of national mourning after a Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed, killing all 157 people onboard.
"The House of People's Representatives have declared March 11, 2019, a national day of mourning for citizens of all countries that have passed in this tragic accident," the office of Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Twitter on Sunday. — AFP