PARIS/ADDIS ABABA: Investigators in France on Friday examined the black boxes of a Boeing 737 MAX that crashed in Ethiopia as a spooked global airline industry waited to see if the cause was similar to a disaster in Indonesia months before.
Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashed soon after take-off from Addis Ababa last weekend, killing 157 people, in the second such calamity involving Boeing’s flagship new model after a jet came down off Indonesia in October with 189 people on board.
Regulators have grounded the 737 MAX around the world, while the US planemaker has halted next deliveries of the several thousand planes on order for a model intended to be the future industry workhorse.
Parallels between the twin disasters have frightened passengers worldwide and wiped more than $26 billion off Boeing’s share price.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said information from the wreckage in Ethiopia plus newly-refined data about its flight path indicated some similarities.
According to two sources, investigators found a piece of a stabiliser in the wreckage of the Ethiopian jet set in an unusual position similar to that of the Lion Air plane in Indonesia. The stabiliser on the tail section pitches the nose up and down.
The FAA and Boeing declined to comment.
The Ethiopian pilot had reported internal problems and asked to return to Addis Ababa in his last communications.
Pilots worldwide were waiting anxiously for the outcome of the investigation, Paul Gichinga, former head of the Kenya Airline Pilots Association, said. — Reuters
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