Ethiopian Airlines crash: Preliminary investigations reveal nose diving as cause
The Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed last month killing 157 passengers on board nose-dived several times before hitting the ground, according to a preliminary report a press release from the Airline copied to ghanabusinessnews.com has said.
The report suggests that the pilots who were commanding the Flight ET 302 on March 10, 2019 followed all the Boeing recommended and FAA approved emergency procedures to handle the most difficult emergency situation created on the airplane, but could not recover.
“Despite their hard work and full compliance with the emergency procedures, it was very unfortunate that they could not recover the airplane from the persistence of nose diving,” the release added.
Group CEO of Ethiopian, Tewolde GebreMariam commended the pilots for following the emergency procedures and exhibiting high professionalism.
He said, “All of us at Ethiopian Airlines are still going through deep mourning for the loss of our loved ones and we would like to express our deep sympathy and condolences for the families, relatives and friends of the victims. Meanwhile; we are very proud of our pilots’ compliances to follow the emergency procedures and high level of professional performances in such extremely difficult situations.”
Flight ET302 on a scheduled flight to Nairobi, crashed few minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa. Eight flight crew and 149 passengers were killed in the accident.
It was the second crash in the space of less than six months involving a Boeing 737 Max aircraft. In October 2018 a Lion Air flight JT 610 crashed into the sea near Indonesia killing all of the 189 people on board.
All 737 Max 8 aircraft have been grounded in the wake of the crash.
Meanwhile, executives of the airline have given the assurance to fully cooperate with the investigation team to ascertain the cause of the accident.
“As the investigation continues with more detailed analysis, as usual we will continue with our full cooperation with the investigation team,” the release added.
By Asabea Akonor