Africa

Ethiopia Airlines to release crash report

The preliminary report into the cause of the March 10 crash of Ethiopian Airlines which killed 157 people will be released soon, the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Nebiat Getachew, has told news agency Reuters.

A timeline has, however, not been set, Reuters report.

An anti-stalling system on the plane, a Boeing 737 Max, has been blamed for the disaster.

Soon after take-off – and just 450ft (137m) above the ground – the aircraft’s nose began to pitch down.

One pilot, according to the Wall Street Journal, said to the other “pitch up, pitch up!” before their radio died.

Leaks last week from the crash investigation in Ethiopia and in the US suggest an automatic anti-stall system was activated at the time of the disaster.

The Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) flight-control feature was also implicated in a fatal crash involving a Lion Air flight in Indonesia last October.

The Boeing 737 Max went down shortly after take-off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.

Boeing 737 MAX models have been grounded around the world after the Ethiopia crash.

Preliminary black box data recovered from the wreckage of the crashed Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max has reportedly suggested an anti-stall system activated before the plane hit the ground.

The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, said early findings about the cause of the crash were pointing to the computer system, designed to make the handling of aircraft more consistent and lessen the risk of a stall.

Boeing grounded its entire global fleet of 737 Max aircraft earlier this month after two fatal crashes in five months. The Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10, which killed all 157 people onboard, followed a Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October, which left 189 dead.

Flight ET302 took off from Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa at 08:38 local time (05:38 GMT) on March 10 for a two-hour flight to the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

Six minutes later it crashed 30 miles southeast of the airport, close to the village of Tulu Fara near the town of Bishoftu.

The pilot was named as Senior Capt Yared Getachew who Ethiopian Airlines said had a “commendable performance” with more than 8,000 hours in the air. He had reported difficulties and asked to return to Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Airlines said.

The plane’s safety systems have become the centre of the investigation.  –BBC

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