FIX IT

Ethiopia Investigators Demand Boeing Review 737 MAX Control System

First official report into disaster raises serious questions for plane-maker.

Investigators have found pilots in the doomed Ethiopian Airlines flight followed correct procedures but couldn’t save the plane—and have urged Boeing to review the control system in its 737 MAX model. The findings in the first official report into last month’s disaster raise serious questions about the Boeing aircraft’s safety. The 737 MAX was grounded after Flight ET302 crashed, killing 157 people, months after a Lion Air flight crashed after takeoff from Indonesia, killing all 189 people on board. According to the report, pilots “repeatedly” followed procedures recommended by Boeing before the crash but “were not able to control the aircraft.” Ethiopia’s minister of transport, Dagmawit Moges, has told Boeing to review the automated flight-control system that is suspected of forcing the plane’s nose down. She said investigators should confirm the problem is solved before allowing the 737 back into the air. Chief executive of Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde GebreMariam, said he was “very proud” of the pilots’ “high level of professional performance” and added: “It was very unfortunate they could not recover the airplane from the persistence of nosediving.”

DANGEROUS WAIT

737 Scandal Grows: Doomed Flight Should Never Have Flown

Clive Irving