Nearly four years after Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 crashed, killing 157 people, Ethiopian officials have once again reiterated their blames on Boeing for what they say were mechanical issues that caused the 737-MAX 8 plane to crash. The state’s final report on the crash was made public on Friday.
Amdeye Ayalew, the head of Ethiopia’s investigation, accused Boeing of failing to “disclose early and attentively” problems with the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System on the 737-MAX 8. (MCAS).
After departing Addis Ababa and heading toward Nairobi, Kenya, the plane crashed shortly after takeoff.
The MCAS system is believed to have caused the plane to “pitch the nose of the airplane down to the point the pilot lost control”, said Ethiopian Transport Minister Dagmawit Moges. “The airplane left (at an) angle of attack or AOA sensor failed immediately after takeoff sending faulty data to the flight control system, the erroneous data in turn triggered the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System or MCAS which repeatedly pitched the nose of the airplane down to the point the pilot lost control” Moges added.
The final report into the Ethiopian Airlines Group incident also concluded that all professionals and planes related to the crash were correctly certified.
In March 2019, Ethiopia’s flight ET 302 Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft flying to the Kenyan capital Nairobi crashed went down six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board from 35 different countries.