Ethiopia says pilots followed Boeing procedures, but couldn’t control jet before deadly crash
By Paul Schemm and Paul Schemm Overnight foreign editor based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Email Bio Follow Luz Lazo Luz Lazo Transportation reporter covering Washington's Metro, buses, Capital Bikeshare and taxis, and the region's road network Email Bio Follow April 4 at 6:38 AM ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The Ethiopian Airlines pilots performed all the procedures recommended by Boeing to save their doomed 737 Max 8 aircraft but could not pull it out of a flight-system...
Like the crash of an Indonesian Max 8 aircraft in October, attention in the Ethiopian Airlines crash has been zeroing in on a flight control system known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System or MCAS, which pushes the nose of the aircraft down to avoid a midair stall. Previous evidence found at the Ethiopian crash site showed equipment on the 737 Max’s tail was positioned in a way that would push the plane’s nose down. Satellite data also showed the Ethiopian Airlines jetliner had ascended and descended multiple times after takeoff, mirroring the behavior of the plane in the Lion Air flight.
Ethiopian Airlines stated immediately following the news conference that the report showed no fault lay with the pilots who “followed the Boeing recommended and FAA-approved emergency procedures.” “It had flown to Johannesburg and back without any maintenance issues,” said John Cox, a former pilot and an airline-safety consultant who has been privately briefed on the evidence by people familiar with the investigation. “The airplane was mechanically sound, it had no deferrals, no write-ups and that makes a big difference.”
The system will also have more limits on how often it will engage and Boeing will make changes that prevent the anti-stall feature from angling the plane’s nose too far downward in its attempts to correct for a possible stall. Elwell painstakingly explained that Boeing’s goal in the redesign of the 737 Max was to make the plane fly exactly as previous generations of the plane had, despite the fact that the engines were somewhat larger and repositioned farther forward on the wings.
The FAA said late Wednesday it is creating a technical review team that will be headed by a former top U.S. transportation safety official and will include representatives from NASA and foreign civil aviation authorities.
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