The Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, and not its pilots, were to blame for the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash, the country’s Ministry of Transport has ruled in an interim report.
The 136-page investigation blamed malfunctions related to the ‘Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System’ and a lack of information in the flight crew operating manual for the disaster that killed 157 people.
The revelation came on the same day The Wall Street Journal reported that the FAA is set to order Boeing to reorder electrical wires inside all 800 MAX aircraft before it can return to service.
The Ethiopian investigation went to lengths to clear the pilots of any blame, insisting they had all obtained the necessary licences and qualifications to fly the plane. Investigators said the aircraft did have a valid “certificate of airworthiness”, no known technical problems and a weight and balance “within the operating limits”.
It also appears to be far more severe in its criticism of the planemaker than the similar report on the crash of the Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 five months earlier.
That investigation laid the blame on a number of factors including aircraft design, the flight crew’s response and lack of documentation on the plane’s flight and maintenance history.
Boeing didn’t respond directly to the criticism in a statement released shortly afterwards.
It said the planemaker extended its “heartfelt sympathies to the families and loved ones of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302”.
A spokesperson added, “Boeing continues to provide technical assistance in support of the investigation, at the request of and under the direction of the US National Transportation Safety Board.
“We look forward to reviewing the full details and formal recommendations that will be included in the final report from the Ethiopian Accident Investigation Bureau.”
The revelations in the interim Ethiopian report have a renewed relevance after Boeing chief executive David Calhoun appeared to blame pilots for the two crashes.
He told The New York Times that pilots from Indonesia and Ethiopia “don’t have anywhere near the experience that they have here in the US”. He added the planemaker made a “fatal mistake” by assuming those flying the aircraft would immediately counteract software failures, which played a role in both accidents.
The New York Times then claimed Calhoun asked to speak off the record when journalists asked him if American pilots would have been able to handle the software malfunction.
When the newspaper demanded an on-the-record response, he said, “Forget it. You can guess the answer.”
On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported the FAA is poised to order Boeing to change the layout of the internal wires before the aircraft be allowed back into service.
The subsequent global grounding of the 737 MAX, Boeing’s most popular passenger jet, is projected to have cost the company $18 billion.
