Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 was a scheduled international passenger flight from
Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
to
Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in
Nairobi
Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...
,
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
. On 10 March 2019, the
Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft which operated the flight crashed near the town of
Bishoftu
Bishoftu (; ) is a town in central Ethiopia. Located in the East Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region, it sits at an elevation of 1,920 metres (6,300 ft). It was formerly known as Debre Zeyit () however since the late 1990s it has been officially kn ...
six minutes after
takeoff
Takeoff is the phase of flight in which an aerospace vehicle leaves the ground and becomes airborne. For aircraft traveling vertically, this is known as liftoff.
For aircraft that take off horizontally, this usually involves starting with a t ...
, killing all 157 people aboard.
Flight 302 is
Ethiopian Airlines's deadliest accident to date, surpassing the fatal hijacking of
Flight 961 resulting in a crash near the
Comoros
The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...
in 1996.
It is also the deadliest aircraft accident to occur in Ethiopia, surpassing the
crash of an Ethiopian Air Force Antonov An-26 in 1982, which killed 73.
This was the second MAX 8 accident in less than five months after the October 2018
Lion Air Flight 610
Lion Air Flight 610 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, Jakarta to Depati Amir Airport, Pangkal Pinang in Indonesia. On 29 October 2018, the Boeing 737 MAX operating the route crashed into th ...
crash in Indonesia.
It prompted a
worldwide long term grounding of the jet and an investigation into how the aircraft was
approved to service.
Aircraft and crew
The aircraft was a
Boeing 737 MAX
The Boeing 737 MAX is the fourth generation of the Boeing 737, a narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), a division of American company Boeing. It succeeds the Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG ...
8,
registered ET-AVJ manufacturer's
serial number
A serial number is a unique identifier assigned incrementally or sequentially to an item, to ''uniquely'' identify it.
Serial numbers need not be strictly numerical. They may contain letters and other typographical symbols, or may consist enti ...
62450, (construction number 7243), powered by two
CFM International LEAP
The CFM International LEAP ("Leading Edge Aviation Propulsion") is a high-bypass turbofan engine produced by CFM International, a 50–50 joint venture between American GE Aviation and French Safran Aircraft Engines (formerly Snecma). It is the ...
-1B engines.
The aircraft was manufactured in October 2018 and delivered on 15 November 2018, making it around four months old at the time of the accident. It had flown from
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
, South Africa as ET858 the night prior.
The
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
of the plane was Yared Getachew, 29, who had been flying with the airline for almost nine years
and had logged a total of 8,122 flight hours, including 4,120 hours on the Boeing 737. He had been a Boeing 737-800 captain since November 2017, and Boeing 737 MAX since July 2018.
At the time of the accident, he was the youngest captain at the airline.
The
first officer, Ahmed Nur Mohammod Nur, 25, was a recent graduate from the airline's academy with 361 flight hours logged, including 207 hours on the Boeing 737.
Accident
Flight 302 was a scheduled international passenger flight from
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
to
Nairobi
Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...
. The aircraft took off from Addis Ababa at 08:38
local time (05:38
UTC) with 149 passengers and 8 crew on board.
One minute into the flight, the first officer, acting on the instructions of the captain, reported a "flight control" problem to the control tower.
Two minutes into the flight, the plane's
MCAS system activated, pitching the plane into a dive toward the ground. The pilots struggled to control it and managed to prevent the nose from diving further, but the plane continued to lose altitude.
The MCAS then activated again, dropping the nose even further down. The pilots then flipped a pair of switches to disable the electrical
trim tab system, which also disabled the MCAS software. However, in shutting off the electrical trim system, they also shut off their ability to trim the
stabilizer into a neutral position with the electrical switch located on their
yokes. The only other possible way to move the stabilizer would be by cranking the wheel by hand, but because the stabilizer was located opposite to the
elevator
An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...
, strong aerodynamic forces were pushing on it.
As the pilots had inadvertently left the engines on full takeoff power, which caused the plane to accelerate at high speed, there was further pressure on the stabilizer. The pilots' attempts to manually crank the stabilizer back into position failed.
Three minutes into the flight, with the aircraft continuing to lose altitude and accelerating beyond its safety limits, the captain instructed the first officer to request permission from air traffic control to return to the airport. Permission was granted, and the air traffic controllers diverted other approaching flights. Following instructions from air traffic control, they turned the aircraft to the east, and it rolled to the right. The right wing came to point down as the turn steepened.
At 8:43, having struggled to keep the plane's nose from diving further by manually pulling the yoke, the captain asked the first officer to help him, and turned the electrical trim tab system back on in the hope that it would allow him to put the stabilizer back into neutral trim. However, in turning the trim system back on, he also reactivated the MCAS system, which pushed the nose further down. The captain and first officer attempted to raise the nose by manually pulling their yokes, but the aircraft continued to plunge toward the ground.
The aircraft disappeared from radar screens and crashed at almost 08:44, six minutes after takeoff.
Flight tracking data showed that the aircraft's altitude and rate of climb and descent were fluctuating. Several witnesses stated the plane trailed "white smoke" and made strange noises before crashing. The aircraft impacted the ground at nearly .
There were no survivors.
It crashed in the ''
woreda
Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas ( am, ወረዳ; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''zones'' and the '' regional states''.
These districts are further subdivided into a number of ...
'' (district) of
Gimbichu
Gimbichu ( Oromo: ''Gimbichuu'') is a woreda in Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Part of the East Shewa Zone, Gimbichu is bordered on the south by Lome, on the southwest by Ada'a Chukala, on the northwest by the Amhara Region, and on the east by the Afar R ...
,
Oromia Region
Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa.
It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Benish ...
, in a farm field near the town of
Bishoftu
Bishoftu (; ) is a town in central Ethiopia. Located in the East Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region, it sits at an elevation of 1,920 metres (6,300 ft). It was formerly known as Debre Zeyit () however since the late 1990s it has been officially kn ...
, southeast of
Bole International Airport
Addis Ababa Bole International Airport is an international airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is in the Bole district, southeast of the city centre and north of Bishoftu. The airport was formerly known as ''Haile Selassie I Internationa ...
.
The impact created a crater about wide, long, and wreckage was driven up to deep into the soil. Wreckage was strewn around the field along with personal effects and body parts.
Emergency response
Shortly after the crash, police and a firefighting crew from a nearby Ethiopian Air Force
The Ethiopian Air Force (ETAF) () is the air service branch of the Ethiopian National Defence Force. The ETAF is tasked with protecting the national air space, providing support to ground forces, as well as assisting civil operations during natio ...
base arrived and extinguished the fires caused by the crash. Police cordoned off the site, and Ethiopian Red Cross personnel and air crash investigators moved in. Together with local villagers, they sifted through the wreckage, recovering pieces of the aircraft, personal effects, and human remains. Trucks and excavators were brought in to assist in clearing the crash site. Human remains found were bagged and taken to Bole International Airport for storage in refrigeration units typically used to store roses destined for export, before being taken to St. Paul's Hospital in Addis Ababa for storage pending identification. Personnel from Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...
and Blake Emergency Services, a private British disaster response firm contracted by the Ethiopian government, arrived to gather human tissue for DNA testing, and an Israel Police forensics team also arrived to assist in identifying the remains of the two Israeli victims of the crash. The Chinese railway construction firm CRSG, later joined by another construction firm, CCCC, brought in large scale equipment including excavators
Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression fro ...
and trucks
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
. They recovered both flight recorder
A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...
s on the 11th of March, with the first being found at 9 am and the second flight recorder found at 1 pm. The black boxes were given to Ethiopian Airlines and were sent to Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
for inspection by the BEA, the French aviation accident investigation agency.
Passengers
The airline stated that the flight's 149 passengers had 35 different nationalities. Crash victim positive identification was announced on September 13, 2019. Nearly a hundred disaster victim identification (DVI) experts from 14 countries supported the Interpol Incident Response Team (IRT) mission.
All passengers and crew on board, 157 in total, were killed in the accident. Many of the passengers were travelling to Nairobi to attend the fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly. A total of 22 people affiliated with the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
(UN) were killed, including seven World Food Programme staff, along with staff of the United Nations office in Nairobi, the International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...
, and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...
. The Deputy Director of Communications for UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
, two staff of General Electric, a retired Nigerian diplomat and senior UN official who was working on behalf of UNITAR
The one stringed guitar, also known as a Unitar is a somewhat less known version of the standard electric guitar. Although rare, the one-string guitar is sometimes heard, particularly in Delta blues, where improvised folk instruments were popula ...
, and a staff member of the Sudan office of the International Organization for Migration
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is a United Nations agency that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants, including internally displaced persons, refugees, and migrant workers.
The IOM was ...
were also among the dead. The airline stated that one passenger had a United Nations laissez-passer
A United Nations laissez-passer (UNLP or LP) is a diplomatic travel document issued by the United Nations under the provisions of Article VII of the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations in its offices in New Y ...
. The flight was considered a "UN shuttle" due to its role in linking the African Union headquarters
The African Union Conference Center and Office Complex (AUCC) is a building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is the headquarters of the African Union and plays host to the biannual AU summits. It also serves as a conference center for African and di ...
as well as other UN offices in Addis Ababa to the United Nations Office at Nairobi, the organisation's headquarters in Africa. The Addis Ababa-Nairobi route is also popular with tourists and business people. An employee of the Norwegian Red Cross
The Norwegian Red Cross (''Norges Røde Kors'') was founded on 22 September 1865 by prime minister Frederik Stang. In 1895 the Norwegian Red Cross began educating nurses, and in 1907 the Norwegian Ministry of Defence authorized the organization fo ...
, a British intern with the Norwegian Refugee Council, an environmental agent for the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators, four Catholic Relief Services staff, and a senior Ugandan police official on assignment with the African Union
The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...
peacekeeping force in Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
were also killed.
Notable victims on-board included the Italian archaeologist and Councillor for Cultural Heritage of Sicily, Sebastiano Tusa
Sebastiano Tusa (2 August 1952 – 10 March 2019) was an Italian archaeologist and politician who served as councilor for Cultural Heritage for the Sicilian Region of Italy from 11 April 2018 until his death on 10 March 2019. Tusa also served as ...
, and Nigerian-Canadian academic Pius Adesanmi
Pius Adebola Adesanmi (27 February 1972 – 10 March 2019) was a Nigerian-born Canadian professor, writer, literary critic, satirist, and columnist. He was the author of '' Naija No Dey Carry Last'', a 2015 collection of satirical essays. Adesan ...
. Slovak politician Anton Hrnko
Anton Hrnko (born 31 January 1955 in Žilina, Czechoslovakia) is a Slovak historian and politician; a member of the Slovak National Party; and a former member of the National Council of Slovakia.
He was formerly a member of Czechoslovakia's c ...
lost his wife and two children in the crash. Other notable victims included Christine Alalo
Christine Alalo (21 March 1970–10 March 2019) was a Ugandan peacekeeper and police commissioner, who received the EU Human Rights Defenders Award in 2014. She was one of the passengers killed in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
E ...
, a Ugandan police commissioner and peacekeeper serving with the African Union Mission in Somalia.
Responses
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed
Abiy Ahmed Ali ( om, Abiyi Ahmed Alii; am, አብይ አሕመድ ዐሊ; born 15 August 1976) is an Ethiopian politician who has been the 4th prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia since 2 April 2018. He won the 2019 ...
offered his condolences to the families of the victims. Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam
Tewolde GebreMariam Tesfay (Amharic: ተወልደ ገብረማርያም ተስፋይ) is an Ethiopian business executive who served as the group chief executive officer of the Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines Group from 2011 to 2022. He se ...
visited the accident site, confirmed that there were no survivors and expressed sympathy and condolences. Boeing issued a statement of condolence.
The Ethiopian parliament declared 11 March as a day of national mourning. During the opening of the fourth United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, a minute of silence was observed in sympathy for the victims. President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, in his condolence message on behalf of the government and the people of Nigeria, extended his sincere condolences to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia, the people of Ethiopia, Kenya, Canada, China and all other nations who lost citizens in the crash.
On 11 March, the FAA commented that the Boeing 737 MAX 8 model was airworthy
In aviation, airworthiness is the measure of an aircraft's suitability for safe flight. Initial airworthiness is demonstrated by a certificate of airworthiness issued by the civil aviation authority in the state in which the aircraft is register ...
. However, due to concerns on the operation of the aircraft, the FAA ordered Boeing to implement design changes, effective by April. It stated that Boeing "plans to update training requirements and flight crew manuals in response to the design change" to the aircraft's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). The changes will also include enhancements to the activation of the MCAS and the angle of attack
In fluid dynamics, angle of attack (AOA, α, or \alpha) is the angle between a reference line on a body (often the chord line of an airfoil) and the vector representing the relative motion between the body and the fluid through which it is m ...
signal. Boeing stated that the upgrade was developed in response to the Lion Air crash but did not link it to the Ethiopian Airlines crash.
On 19 March, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation
The United States secretary of transportation is the head of the United States Department of Transportation. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to transportation. The secre ...
, Elaine L. Chao
Elaine Lan Chao (born March 26, 1953) is an American businesswoman and former government official. A member of the Republican Party, she served as the 18th United States secretary of transportation in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2021, a ...
, sent a memo to the U.S. Inspector General asking him to "proceed with an audit to compile an objective and detailed factual history of the activities that resulted in the certification of the Boeing 737-MAX 8 aircraft."
''Flight International
''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's oldes ...
'' commented that the accident would likely increase unease about the Boeing 737 MAX felt in the aftermath of the Lion Air Flight 610
Lion Air Flight 610 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, Jakarta to Depati Amir Airport, Pangkal Pinang in Indonesia. On 29 October 2018, the Boeing 737 MAX operating the route crashed into th ...
accident in October 2018, which similarly occurred shortly after take-off and killed everyone aboard. Boeing shares dropped 11% over the weekend; by 23 March, Boeing had lost more than $40 billion in market value, dropping some 14% since the crash.
Groundings
Investigation
The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority
The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA, am, የኢትዮጵያ ሲቪል ኤቪዬሽን ባለሥልጣን) is an agency of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Government of Ethiopia. It was established under Proclamation ...
(ECAA), the agency responsible for investigating civil aviation accidents in Ethiopia, investigated the accident. The aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, stated that it was prepared to work with the United States National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...
(NTSB) and assist Ethiopian Airlines. The United States Federal Aviation Administration also assisted in the investigation.
Both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder were recovered from the crash site on 11 March. The French aviation accident investigation agency BEA announced that it would analyze the flight recorders from the flight. BEA received the flight recorders on 14 March. On 17 March, the Ethiopia's transport minister Dagmawit Moges announced that "the black box has been found in a good condition that enabled us to extract almost all the data inside" and that the preliminary data retrieved from the flight data recorder show a clear similarity with those of Lion Air Flight 610 which crashed off Indonesia.
On 13 March 2019, the FAA announced that new evidence found on the crash site and satellite data on Flight 302 suggested that the aircraft might have suffered from the same problem which the aircraft operating Lion Air Flight 610
Lion Air Flight 610 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, Jakarta to Depati Amir Airport, Pangkal Pinang in Indonesia. On 29 October 2018, the Boeing 737 MAX operating the route crashed into th ...
had suffered from. Investigators discovered the jackscrew that controlled the pitch angle of the horizontal stabilizer of Flight 302, was in the full "nose down" position. The finding suggested that, at the time of the crash, Flight 302 was configured to dive, similar to Lion Air Flight 610. Due to this finding, some experts in Indonesia suggested that the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee
The National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC, id, Komite Nasional Keselamatan Transportasi, KNKT; literally "Transportation Safety National Committee") is an Indonesian government agency charged with the investigation of air, land, rail, ...
(NTSC) should cooperate with Flight 302's investigation team. Later on the evening, the NTSC offered assistance to Flight 302's investigation team, stating that the committee and the Indonesian Transportation Ministry would send investigators and representatives from the government to assist with the investigation of the crash.
Preliminary report
On 4 April 2019, the ECAA released the preliminary report on the crash. The preliminary report does not specifically mention MCAS but rather states "approximately five seconds after the end of the ANU (aircraft nose up) stabilizer motion, a third instance of AND (aircraft nose down) automatic trim command occurred without any corresponding motion of the stabilizer, which is consistent with the stabilizer trim cutout switches being in the "cutout" position".
Approximately one minute into the flight, an airspeed of was selected. About 12 seconds later, the autopilot disengaged. The preliminary report asserts that the thrust remained at takeoff setting (94% N1) and the throttles did not move for the entire flight. In the next 30 seconds the stabilizer trim moved 4.2 degrees nose down, from 4.6 to 0.4 units. In the next 10 seconds the trim moved back up to 2.3 units as a result of pilot input and the pilots agreed on and executed the stabilizer trim cut-out procedure, cutting power to the trim motor operated by MCAS.
Interim report
On 9 March 2020, the ECAA released an interim report on the crash. This report stated that the left and right angle of attack (AOA) values deviated by 59°. The AOA disagree message did not appear. The left minimum operating speed and left stick shaker speed was computed to be greater than the maximum operating speed without any invalidity detection. The pitch Flight Director bars disappeared then reappeared with left and right displaying different guidance. The left stick shaker activated. The nose-down trim (MCAS) triggered four times. The right over-speed clacker activated. On the third MCAS trigger there was no corresponding motion of the stabilizer, which is consistent with the stabilizer trim cutout switches being in the "cutout" position at that moment. The MCAS design relied on single AOA sensor inputs making it vulnerable to undesired activation. The difference training from B737NG to B737 MAX was inadequate.
Further developments
On 10 March 2021, the second anniversary of the accident, the ECAA announced that the final report on the accident would be soon released, though not providing a specific date. However, other parties have expressed disagreement with the findings. Despite the announcement, the ECAA has not released the final report as of 2022.
Reactions to the investigation
Statements from parties
Ethiopian Airlines said MCAS was "to the best of our knowledge" active when the aircraft crashed. According to Ethiopian transport minister Dagmawit Moges, the crew "performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer but was not able to control the aircraft". Bjorn Fehrm from Leeham News stated the preliminary report confirms "the Flight Crew followed the procedures prescribed by FAA and Boeing in Airworthiness Directive 2018-23-51", released shortly after the Lion Air crash.
Boeing's CEO Dennis Muilenburg said on 29 April that if "you go through the checklist...it calls out actions that would be taken around power management and pitch management of the airplane. It also refers to the cutout switches, that after an activation that was not pilot-induced, that you would hit the cutout switches. And, in some cases, those procedures were not completely followed".
A data spike in the flight data led to speculations about a bird or other debris hitting the plane as it was taking off, shearing away the airflow sensor. These speculations were dismissed by Ethiopian Airlines, and Chief investigator Amdye Ayalew Fanta stated there was no indication of such damage.
On 25 April, The Aviation Herald submitted 25 questions that have arisen in the aftermath of the accident to the FAA
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
's Flight Standardization Board (FSB) regarding their draft for certification of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Earlier, it stated that a copy of the version of section 2.6 of the Flight Operations Manual, "Operational Irregularities", in use by Ethiopian Airlines at the time of the crash was dated 1 November 2017 and did not include material from the Operator's Bulletin issued by Boeing on 6 November 2018.
Expert analysis
Based on the preliminary report, The Aviation Herald comes to the conclusion: "Neither of the three crews" (JT-43, JT-610, ET-302) "would have been forced to react under time pressure in order to prevent a crash, ..without the technical malfunctions [of the angle of attack
In fluid dynamics, angle of attack (AOA, α, or \alpha) is the angle between a reference line on a body (often the chord line of an airfoil) and the vector representing the relative motion between the body and the fluid through which it is m ...
sensors] and the nose down trim inputs."
According to ''The Air Current'' aviation journal and ''The Seattle Times'', the preliminary report shows the pilots initially followed the procedure to disable runaway trim, but the recovery effort did not succeed. Pilots have demonstrated in simulator that the trim wheels cannot be moved in severe mis-trim conditions combined with a high airspeed. As the pilots on Flight 302 pulled on the yoke to raise the nose, the aerodynamic forces on the tail's elevator would create an opposing force on the stabilizer trim jackscrew that would prevent the pilots from moving the trim wheel by hand.
The resolution for this jammed trim issue is not part of Boeing's current 737 manual according to ''The Air Current''. ''The Seattle Times'' reports pilots on the 737-200 were trained for this failure, but later models became so reliable that this procedure was no longer necessary.
Experts theorize that the difficulty to trim made it necessary for the flight crew to release the cutout, and try to use electronic trim in an effort to correct the out-of-trim configuration. According to Bjorn Fehrm (Leeham News) and Peter Lemme at this time the airplane was flying "at 375kts and MCAS was never designed to trim at these Speed/Altitude combinations".
Pilot analysis
John Cox, a former 737 pilot and pilots' union safety representative, and Chesley Sullenberger, who successfully ditched US Airways Flight 1549
US Airways Flight 1549 was a regularly scheduled US Airways flight from New York City (LaGuardia Airport), to Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte and Seattle, in the United States. On January 15, 2009, the Airbus A320 serving the flight bir ...
in the Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
, both did Flight Simulator
A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they rea ...
replications of Flight 302. Cox described the rapid onset of unforeseen events as a "...breeding ground for confusion and task saturation." Sullenberger commented that "Even knowing what was going to happen, I could see how crews would have run out of time and altitude before they could have solved the problems." While defending the pilots' actions, Sullenberger was also highly critical of allowing someone with only 200 hours of flight experience to be first officer.
Dramatization
* The crash was mentioned in the 21st season of the TV series ''Mayday
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications.
It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiza ...
'' in an episode entitled " Grounded: Boeing Max 8".
* In February 2022, Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
released '' Downfall: The Case Against Boeing'', a documentary about the Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 plane crashes.
See also
*Ethiopian Airlines accidents and incidents
Ethiopian Airlines, the national airline of Ethiopia, has a good safety record. , the ''Aviation Safety Network'' records 64 accidents/incidents for Ethiopian Airlines that total 459 fatalities since 1965, plus six accidents for Ethiopian Air Line ...
*Lion Air Flight 610
Lion Air Flight 610 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, Jakarta to Depati Amir Airport, Pangkal Pinang in Indonesia. On 29 October 2018, the Boeing 737 MAX operating the route crashed into th ...
– the other Boeing 737 MAX accident which occurred four months prior
* Swissair Flight 111 – another plane crash which was also dubbed by the media as a "U.N. Shuttle"
Notes
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
*
Analysis of preliminary report: timeline and human factor
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Difficulty to trim
* — 737NG
The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a narrow-body aircraft powered by two jet engines and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third generation derivative of the Boein ...
simulator demonstration of the difficulty to trim in an out-of-trim situation similar to the accident.
* — Graphical illustration of the trim issue.
Summary of the 737 Max crashes
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{{Portal bar, Aviation, Africa
2019 disasters in Ethiopia
2019 in Ethiopia
Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 737 MAX
Airliner accidents and incidents caused by design or manufacturing errors
Aviation accidents and incidents in 2019
Aviation accidents and incidents in Ethiopia
Flight 302
March 2019 events in Africa
Oromia Region