Uche Usim, Abuja
As air crash investigators dig into the March 10 disaster of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302, preliminary data recovered from the black boxes has revealed sufficient similarities with the October’s ill-fated Lion Air crash. The Ethiopian Minister of Transport, Dagmawit Moges, who made the revelation Sunday night said that investigators have recovered all relevant data from the black boxes.
Though Moges did not provide additional details about the detected similarities between the two crashes, he however said they would be “subject to further investigation.”
Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 crashed on March 10, six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board. It was the second disaster involving a new Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in less than six months.
In October, all 189 people on board Lion Air Flight 610 were killed when the flight went down over the Java Sea in Indonesia 13 minutes after takeoff.
Similarities between the two incidents both of which remain under investigation led aviation authorities around the globe to ground B737 Max 8s.
Investigators suspect the Lion Air crash may have been caused by an angle of attack sensor on the outside of the plane that transmitted incorrect data, which could have triggered automated flight software called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, that forced the plane’s nose down.
According to a preliminary report on the crash, the pilots first manually corrected an “automatic aircraft nose down” two minutes after takeoff and performed the same procedure again and again before the plane hurtled nose-first into the Java Sea, the report said.
On Sunday, after Moges’ remarks, Boeing Chairman and CEO Dennis Muilenburg, issued a statement saying the company “continues to support the investigation, and is working with the authorities to evaluate new information as it becomes available.”