The New York Times/Selam Gebrekidan and James Glanz: Ethiopians Say Flight Data From Doomed Jet Shows Similarities to Indonesian Flight That Crashed

The New York Times
Ethiopians Say Flight Data From Doomed Jet Shows Similarities to Indonesian Flight That Crashed
A case containing the data recorders from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 was delivered last week to France’s air accident investigation agency.CreditPhilippe Wojazer/Reuters
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A case containing the data recorders from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 was delivered last week to France’s air accident investigation agency.CreditCreditPhilippe Wojazer/Reuters

By Selam Gebrekidan and James Glanz

    March 17, 2019

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Information from the data and voice recorders from an Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed last weekend shows similarities to an earlier crash of the same type of Boeing plane used by an Indonesian airline, Ethiopia’s transport ministry said.

A spokesman for the ministry would not say what the similarities were but said that details of the investigation would be revealed later.

Although the investigation of the latest crash is still in its early stages, the flight data adds to earlier indications that the Boeing 737 Max 8 used by Ethiopian Airlines may have had problems similar to those of the Indonesian plane, a Lion Air flight that crashed in October.

[The Ethiopian Airlines pilot’s tense messages show the jet faced an emergency almost immediately after takeoff]

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The second crash led to a worldwide grounding of Max 8s, Boeing’s best-selling aircraft. Although American regulators were slow to ground the planes in the United States, they said physical evidence from the Ethiopian crash, along with satellite tracking data, suggested similarities between the two crashes.

Publicly available data on the Ethiopian jet’s flight path, and early findings from the debris collected after it crashed, are consistent with the possibility that the software system that is the central focus of the Indonesian crash may have been involved.

That system, called MCAS, was installed in the new Max 8 planes as a way of preventing stalls and worked by forcing the nose of the planes down.

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In the Indonesian flight there are indications that the system acted in error, and that the pilots had trouble overriding the software’s actions. They ultimately lost their battle before the plane plunged into the sea.
One of the two black box recorders of the Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max that crashed last week after taking off from the airport in Addis Ababa.CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images
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One of the two black box recorders of the Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max that crashed last week after taking off from the airport in Addis Ababa.CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images

None of the public evidence on the Ethiopian flight is strong enough to prove that the system was active or that it forced the plane down, and many experts caution that conclusions at this stage of an investigation are far from certain.

In the Ethiopian flight, just as with Lion Air, public data on the flight appears to show repeated up-and-down oscillations lasting 15 to 20 seconds — a possible indication that pilots overrode the nose-down push by MCAS, only to see it activate again. For Lion Air, those oscillations were later confirmed by data from the flight recorders, or black boxes.

Debris from the Ethiopian jet added to suspicions that the MCAS system may have been involved. An obscure part called a jackscrew — the component that moves the stabilizers up and down on the tail — was recovered, and its configuration showed the stabilizers were tilted upward, according to two people with knowledge of the recovery operations. That upward tilt of the stabilizers is the mechanism that MCAS uses to push the nose down.

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The Wall Street Journal first reported Sunday that the Ethiopians said the jet’s flight data recorders showed similarities to the Indonesian flight.

On Sunday, in response to the Ethiopians’ statements on the black box findings, Boeing said that it “is working with the authorities to evaluate new information as it becomes available.” It added that “in accordance with international protocol, all inquiries about the ongoing accident investigation must be directed to the investigating authorities.”

As the investigations continue, Boeing has been racing to finish a software update for the 737 Max aircraft, which is expected by April, that will modify how the MCAS system works.

[When the 737 Max was introduced, Boeing and regulators agreed that pilots didn’t need additional simulator training.]

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The United States National Transportation Safety Board said in recent days that it was sending a delegation to France, where the black box information from the Ethiopian flight was being downloaded.

When asked about the black box findings on Sunday, a spokesman for the agency, Eric M. Weiss, said that only Ethiopian officials can release those results.

A preliminary report on the crash will be published within 30 days, the Ethiopian transport ministry said on Sunday.

Selam Gebrekidan reported from Addis Ababa and James Glanz from New York. Aurelien Breeden contributed reporting from Paris, David Gelles from New York and Thomas Kaplan from Washington.

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