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LAST UPDATE | 11 Mar 2019
THE DIGITAL FLIGHT data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder from the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed yesterday, killing 157 people, including one Irish person, has been recovered, according to the airline.
The brand new Max 8 plane, being flown by Ethiopian Airlines, crashed just six minutes into its flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi in Kenya, killing all those on board.
The airline this morning announced that it is pulling its fleet of 737 Max from service, just hours after China’s air safety regulator ordered domestic airlines to do the same.
Last October, the same model of plane, operated by Lion Air, crashed in Indonesia, killing 189.
Since the Lion Air accident, the 737 MAX has faced growing skepticism from the aviation community. The program had already encountered problems during development.
In May 2017, Boeing had halted 737 MAX test flights due to quality concerns with the engine produced by CFM International, a company jointly owned by France’s Safran Aircraft Engines and GE Aviation.
While Teal Group expert Richard Aboulafia said it was “too soon to make any kind of meaningful comment,” another industry expert stressed the similarities between the two incidents.
“It’s the same plane. Like Lion Air, the (Ethiopian Airlines) accident took place shortly after takeoff and the pilots signaled they were experiencing problems, then the plane crashed. The similarities are clear,” the expert added, requesting anonymity.
Chinese aviation authorities have also noted the “similarities” between the two deadly incidents.
Boeing said it was “deeply saddened” by the Ethiopian Airlines incident, adding that a technical team would be providing assistance to investigators.
Victims
Eight crew and 149 passengers from 35 countries perished when Flight ET 302 smashed into a field.
The Irish person who was among those who died was last night named as Michael Ryan, originally from Lahinch, Co Clare.
Michael Ryan was Deputy Chief Engineer at the United Nations’ World Food Programme and was based at its Rome headquarters, a spokesperson confirmed to TheJournal.ie.
“All of WFP’s thoughts and condolences are with the families of those killed.”
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson told TheJournal.ie: “The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is aware of the incident and providing consular assistance.
Also among the dead were tourists, business travellers, and UN staff, including some who worked for the World Food Programme, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The IOM said early indications were that 19 staff members of UN-affiliated organisations died in the crash.
Many were headed for an annual assembly of the UN Environment Programme, which opens in Nairobi today with 4,700 heads of state, ministers, business leaders, senior UN officials and civil society representatives.
Ethiopia’s parliament has declared a national day of mourning today.
According to the airline, Kenya had the largest number of casualties with 32, followed by Canada with 18, Ethiopia nine, then Italy, China, and the United States with eight each.
Britain and France each had seven people on board, Egypt six, and Germany five – though the breakdown was not final.
France’s government later said there were eight French victims.
“Our thoughts tonight are with families of all those lost in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, including Irish engineer Michael Ryan,” Taoiseach Leo Varadkar tweeted.
“Michael was doing life-changing work in Africa with the World Food Programme. Deepest sympathies to family, colleagues & friends.”
Speaking to reporters yesterday, the Minister for Business Heather Humphreys said:
“I just want to say I am very sorry to hear about the Ethiopian airline that crashed this morning and I understand from media reports that there is one Irish citizen on that.
Our thoughts are with the families and the Department of Foreign Affairs remains ready to act in any way that they can and give any support to the families.
Tánaiste Simon Coveney said that it is a “tragedy” for the families involved.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Prime Minister Theresa May both described the news as “devastating”.
Investigation
Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s biggest carrier, said the search of the crash site had been suspended overnight, but would resume in daylight.
“A committee comprising of Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority and Ethiopian Transport Authority has been set up to carry out the investigations,” it added.
Once the… deceased are identified, their bodies will be delivered to their families and loved ones.
The US National Transportation Safety Board also said it would send investigators to assist.
With reporting by - © AFP 2019
I think it would be a good idea if each Country banned them for their Airspace.. There is clearly something wrong with them so it’s time to ground the fleet.. Back in the early 2000′s the 737′s had a similar problem, a good few of them crashed either just after take off.. Turned out it was a problem with a part that controlled the rudder…If you watch Air Crash Investigation you’ll know it normally takes a few crashes for them to uncover the reason why a plane is crashing, but there’s no way anymore people should die just so boeing can figure out why their planes are falling out of the sky..
@David Garland: actually ‘normally’ the cause of a crash can be determined by examining that crash, the fundamental error in your arguement, and one regularity made, is that new aircraft equate to new errors, when in fact most aircraft accidents are variations upon the same set of root causes. The industry learns from its errors, and then as time moves on e peroence of that error is lost until it happens again.
In the case of the 737 you mentioned, the i investigations took so long because the nature of the error was transient and evidence obliterated in the crash, it took the error happening at high altitude, with a pilot who was able to recover, to final come back to a solid provable theory
@Vocal Outrage: Correct me if I’m wrong but these type of crashes have not happened with any other type of Aircraft so soon after take off.. Two identical crashes so soon after take off in brand new planes would suggest it’s a problem with this particular type of Aircraft not a “Variation of the upon the same set of root causes” like you suggested.. Also the 787′s have a problem with the Rolls Royce engines that are used on that Aircraft, all airlines have started to replace them as the parts within the engine have started to wear out quicker than expected.. Again another problem with just one Aircraft not a ” Variation of the same set of root causes”
@David Garland: loads of crashes have happe ed so soon after take off. Just because they appear from the couch to be similar doesnt mean the causes are the same. Concorde crashed “just after take off” but was a completely different cause
@Ronan Fahy: Two identical crashes of brand new aircraft just off the production line of a new model would suggest it’s a problem with that particular Aircraft.. That’s why the Chinese have banned them from their Airspace and Ethopian have grounded the rest of their Max’s in their fleet.
@Ronan Fahy: Would you be happy to fly on one of those planes?, I can tell you now I won’t be flying on them end of.
@Peter Hughes: are not Ryan Air buying some of these planes?. Ill stick to the hot air balloon .
@David Garland: thats not in dispute. You said other aircraft have not crashed so soon after tske off, i was correcting that statement not denying that 2 similar crashes happened
@Ronan Fahy: These aircraft differ because they are only a few months old and the crashes were identical.. The Concorde crash you mentioned was because of a multitude of things, other crashes like the Span Air was because the flaps were not set.. These two 737 crashes have something to do with the on-board software and flight Data.. A fault on this particular model it would seem
@David Garland: The rudder problem was b4 landing after exposure to sudden changes in temperature. It took time because it wasn’t obvious what the issue was. They know very well what happened with lion air. The don’t know yet what caused yesterday’s crash. Could be anything.
Boeing seems to know there’s a problem. It looks like the on-board computer over rides manual controls. A software problem that causes the aircraft to ascend rapidly and steeply, going into a stall and nosediving into the ground.
I hate flying at the best of times, it scares me. These issues doesn’t give you any confidence to board any aircraft, never mind a Boeing.
@Dave Doyle: likewise… I’m a ball of stress and sweat and panic for about the first 15 minutes of any flight. Everyone laughs at me but its a horrendous feeling. Taking off is statistically the most dangerous part of flying
@Dave Doyle: really scary….. software only works until the next bug is found
@Dave Doyle: Look up Christopher Paul Jones on YouTube.. He has done my fear of flying the world of good.. https://youtu.be/qIT3OF3UTx0
@thomas patrick: You can’t relax, always on edge, stressed, hearing every change in the revs of the engines and wondering why. I’ve got claustrophobia to deal with as well.
@David Garland: Will do, thanks.
@Dave Doyle: QF72 an A330 which could have ended really bad except the pilots were in a cruise and had time and altitude to recover the aircraft. Software issue
@thomas patrick: Statistically, landing is when the flight operations becomes exposed to most dangers.
@thomas patrick: I’m pretty sure crashing is more dangerous than taking off.
RyanAir are just in the process of taking delivery of their first 737 max. They ordered 135 of them in 2014. Think i’ll be flying aer Lingus from now on
@Brian Jones: Curiously, they could be the safest planes in the air soon after the attention they will receive after this incident.
Here’s hoping.
@Fozz: yeah. Could be the safest. I’ll wait and see thank you
This was the only option. And with Ryanair buying so many of these it would not be good for them or anyone.
It seems the planes has a new “safety system”, MCAS, to prevent that the nose pulls up too much and stall. But Boeing did not want to “confuse pilots” with knowledge about the system and apparently(?) therefore pilots are not informed that it is there or how to disable it. See link:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/27/boeing_737_max_mcas_lion_air/
Simply, if the pilots know how to disable a faulty system all would be ok. But for some reason, they were not.
Great article from New York times written 5 weeks before this incident..
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/03/world/asia/lion-air-plane-crash-pilots.html
@Joe Clery: Agree! And behind this Boeing sentence probably the “savings” that led to the crashes: “… the new model would fly safely and handle enough like the existing model that 737 pilots would not have to undergo costly retraining.”
@Joe Clery: scary stuff. Boeing’s cost savings have cost alot of lives
@Joe Clery: that’s unbelievable thanks for posting looks like it’s more about profit than safety. I wonder if Ryanair pilots are being retrained
This is the cue for scores of amateur aviation ‘experts’ to tells us why the crash happened.
@ted hagan: You don’t have to an expert to have read that Boeing 737 Max Software was having problems with forcing aircraft to recover from stalls that weren’t really happening. That level of automation doesn’t help pilots, it makes them redundant.
Looks like to me these planes are not been serviced properly in foreign countries I wonder why ? ?
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