The crew of a Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed last month repeatedly followed procedures recommended by Boeing, but were unable to regain control of the jet, the Ethiopian transport minister has said.
Dagmawit Moges made the announcement at a press conference on Thursday as she unveiled the results of the preliminary probe into the crash, which killed all 157 people on board
“The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer but was not able to control the aircraft,” Dagmawit said, citing data from the Boeing 737 MAX 8’s recorders.
She said the report recommends “the aircraft flight control system shall be reviewed by the manufacturer.”
“Aviation authorities shall verify that the review of the aircraft flight control system has been adequately addressed by the manufacturer before the release of the aircraft for operations”.
Dagmawit did not make specific reference to the automatic anti-stalling system which has been implicated in the crash, but did mention a “repetitive nose down” movement of the aircraft.
The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) is designed to automatically lower the aircraft’s nose if it detects a stall or loss of airspeed.
The jet crashed on March 10 shortly after takeoff from Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. It was the second crash of a 737 MAX 8 within five months, following a Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October last year.
Following the crash the Max jets have been grounded worldwide pending a software fix that Boeing is rolling out, which must still receive approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and other regulators.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
