Ethiopian Airlines pilots performed all Boeing recommended procedures to get control of the plane before it went down, says preliminary ET 302 crash report.
Ethiopian Airlines Boeing planePhoto/File
borkena
April 4,2019
Ethiopian Airlines pilots on ET 302, Nairobi bound flight which crashed shortly after takeoff from Bole International Airport claiming all 157 people on board, performed all Boeing procedures but were unable to control the plane reveals preliminary report from investigation into the Crash.
Ethiopia’s Ministry of Transport, Dagmawit Moges, said the plane maker, aviation experts from the United States, France and other European aviation experts took part in the Ministry’s investigation process.
Second from left, Dagmawit Moges, Ethiopia’s Transport MinisterPhoto credit : EBC
Black Box from ET 302 was recovered from the crash site in Bishoftu, about 44 kilometers south east of the capital Addis Ababa, two days after the accident and was flown to France to retrieve information from it as Ethiopia did not have the expertise.
Investigators established four major points after thorough analysis of the crash:
1) The plane had certificate to fly
2) The Pilots had competence and license to fly the plane
3) The plane was in the right path and in perfect condition during take off
4) Ethiopian Airlines pilots performed all Boeing recommended procedures to control the plane.
Investigation into the accident adhered to all international processes of accident investigation.
Detailed report of the crash, based on the preliminary report, will be released to the international community within one year, Ethiopia’s ministry of Transport has announced on Thursday upon release preliminary report. ET 302 crash victims are from over 35 countries around the world.
The ministry has also affirmed that the objective of the investigation is not to point fingers but to take lesson to ensure safety in the aviation industry and avoid similar accidents in the future.
The team of investigators from ET 302 crash recommended that Boeing need to review and fix flight control software that is causing nose of 737 Max 8 planes pitch down during flight.
It is also recommended that aviation authorities put in place regulatory mechanism to ensure Boeing plane in question, Boeing 737 Max 8, is fitted with effective system capable of controlling flight in the event of technical issues during a flight before allowing the planes back to the air.
In a CNN report published on Thursday April 4,2019, Miles O’Brien, said that 737 Max should have been grounded before the Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10,2018.
He is of the view that “there was enough information for Boeing to ground the planes in the aftermath of the Lion Air accident, also involving a 737 Max 8 jet, in October 2018.”
Earlier reports have likened ET 302 crash with Indonesian Lion Air accident which crashed into Java Sea minutes after takeoff from Jakarta.
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