French aviation safety authorities this week joined U.S. investigators in a harsh critique of the final report by Ethiopian authorities into the March 2019 crash of a Boeing 737 MAX.
In this March 11, 2019, file photo, wreckage is piled at the crash scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash near Bishoftu, Ethiopia.
The French and American critiques — a rare fracture among the safety authorities participating in an air accident investigation — don’t dispute Boeing’s role, but present a fuller picture of the tragedy’s cause. He said “it smacks of their attempts to sweep under the carpet some clear deficiencies by the flight crew and the airline.”
In this March 11, 2019, photo, rescuers work at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash outside of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Both the NTSB and France’s Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis agreed with the Ethiopian agency’s conclusion that the design of Boeing’s new flight control software that repeatedly pushed the jet’s nose down — the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS — was a major cause of the accident.
Both agencies suggest that Ethiopian Airlines failed to ensure its pilots were adequately trained in the measures that Boeing recommended to counter an erroneous MCAS activation after the first MAX crash. To ensure independence from the U.S. manufacturer, the Ethiopian agency sent the plane’s black box to Paris, where the BEA performed the technical analysis on the jet’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders.
“There’s no doubt in my mind MCAS played a major role in this accident,” said Guzzetti, the former NTSB investigator. “In the public perception, Boeing got hammered because of these accidents, and they deserved to get hammered. I think the stain on Boeing is just as visible was it always was.” Pilots are supposed to memorize the response to an “Airspeed Unreliable” message: Disengage the automatic systems that control flight position and speed, and fly manually.
Meanwhile the autothrottle was stuck at full takeoff thrust. Soon the jet was moving much too fast, beyond its maximum design speed. The first officer, who should have been helping the captain figure out what was going on, had only 361 hours of total flying experience. He appeared “overwhelmed by the events on board from the moment the stick shaker triggered,” the BEA said.
“After a crash that just killed an entire planeload of people in Indonesia, you would think that they would offer a little bit more detail as to what to do if this were to happen again,” said de Luis. “The procedures were clearly written to minimize any sort of liability.”The NTSB and BEA assert that Ethiopian Airlines didn’t provide hands-on training to its pilots to execute Boeing’s instructions.
The Ethiopian report notes that Boeing’s bulletin didn’t mention that MCAS activates only when the flaps are retracted. Still, with the Lion Air crash scenario surely at the forefront of their minds, the captain seems to have realized MCAS was the problem. Confused, he tried to execute Boeing’s instructions, but messed up the sequence.
Perhaps panicking, he cut power to the horizontal tail prematurely, with the plane still in a nose-down posture. What caused that initial sensor failure that started this awful sequence of events? The French and U.S. agencies differ with the Ethiopian authority, which suggested some quality problem.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Engineer who lost sister in 737 Max crash to serve on Boeing safety panelAn aerospace engineer whose sister was killed in the second of two 737 Max crashes will serve as one of two dozen members of a panel that will review Boeing’s safety practices, the Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday.
Read more »
Crew set to fly on Boeing Starliner add final touches to mission patchThe color orange and the marbled blue Earth each symbolize aspects that are personal to the NASA astronauts who are set to launch on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft for the first time.
Read more »
7 space missions and announcements to watch for in 2023, from NASA to SpaceX and moreNASA will announce astronauts for Artemis II, Boeing will send crew to the space station...
Read more »
How a French Chef Puts a Creative Spin on a British ClassicThe three-Michelin-starred restaurant Hélène Darroze serves a Wellington with grouse.
Read more »
The Boys: Vought+ Eyes Warner Bros. Discovery/HBO Max Business PlanIn the TheBoys universe, Vought International announced changes to VoughtPlus that sound vaguely familiar to WarnerBrosDiscovery's HBOMax business plan. Opinion / TheBoysTV Amazon PrimeVideo
Read more »
The Best Comedies on HBO Max Right Now (January 2023)Here are the best comedies on HBO Max this January, with hilarious movies from the early 1920s up through today.
Read more »