Report Blames Ethiopian Crash on Boeing 737 MAX Software Failure
HeadlineApr 05, 2019
- Ethiopia has released preliminary findings from its investigation into last month’s fatal crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which killed all 157 crew and passengers on board. Ethiopia’s transport minister said the pilots of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet followed normal procedures but were unable to overcome a flaw in the plane’s software that automatically pushed the plane’s nose down. The report found similarities in the technical failures experienced by pilots of October’s Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610, which also crashed just minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board. The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded all 737 MAX aircraft while Boeing works on fixes to the planes’ software.n
Boeing CEO Apologizes for Crashes That Killed 346 People
Apr 05, 2019
On Thursday, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg released a video apology.
Dennis Muilenburg: “We at Boeing are sorry for the lives lost in the recent 737 MAX accidents. … From the days immediately following the Lion Air accident, we’ve had teams of our top engineers and technical experts working tirelessly, in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration and our customers, to finalize and implement a software update that will ensure accidents like that of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 never happen again.”
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported Thursday that Boeing is working on an additional software fix for another problem, this time related to aircraft flaps and other flight control hardware. These issues are reportedly classified as critical to flight safety. We’ll have more on Boeing after headlines, when we’ll speak with renowned consumer rights activist Ralph Nader, whose grandniece Samya Stumo was killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash.Topics: