Same type of plane was in deadly crash five months ago
The plane that crashed in Ethiopia killing 157 people was the same Boeing model as an aircraft that fell into the Java Sea five months ago.
In both cases the Boeing 737 Max 8 was just a few months old and crashed within minutes after taking off, leaving no survivors. The aircraft that crashed yesterday entered service in November.
In October the same model, operated by Lion Air, an Indonesian budget carrier, crashed shortly after take-off from Jakarta with 189 people on board. Boeing issued a safety warning and investigators subsequently determined that the plane had gone into a nosedive as the pilots battled an anti-stall system that was malfunctioning because of problems with a sensor.
The 737 Max is one of Boeing’s most advanced aircraft and was designed as a fuel-efficient upgrade to existing 737s.
The pilot of the Ethiopian Airlines plane had sent out a distress call and was given clearance to turn back when the plane disappeared from the radar. Citizens of at least 35 countries were on board flight ET302 between Addis Ababa and Nairobi.
A witness described how the plane came down in flames. ‘‘The plane was already on fire when it crashed to the ground. The crash caused a big explosion,’’ Tegegn Dechasa recounted at the site.
Pictures of the crash site in a field near the town of Bishoftu, 50km southeast of the Ethiopian capital, showed a massive impact crater and revealed that no large peices of the plan remained. Clothes and belongings were scattered widely. Investigators, the Red Cross and a bulldozer picked through the wreckage.
Grieving families rushed to the airports in both cities after news of the crash was announced on Twitter by Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed.
Aid workers from Italy, the family of an MP from Slovakia, Austrian doctors and a prominent football official from Kenya were among the 149 passengers aboard the flight.
There were also tears of relief. Ahmed Khalid, who missed the flight after landing from Dubai, had a poignant reunion with his father, Khalid Bzambur, who met him off a later flight.
Some of those aboard were thought to be travelling to a United Nations environmental conference due to start tomorrow in Nairobi. Several countries lost more than five citizens, including Canada, Kenya, France, China, the US, the UK and the Netherlands. The airline said that the families of all 157 victims had been contacted and remains would be returned to them once identified.
Tewolde GebreMariam, the airline’s chief executive, said that the pilot, who joined the airline in 2010, had an ‘‘excellent flying record’’ and more than 8000 flying hours. The plane had landed from Johannesburg with ‘‘no known technical problems’’ and visibility for the flight was clear. The plane’s last full maintenance check was five weeks ago and it had flown only 1200 hours since it was delivered in November.
On Twitter the air traffic monitor Flightradar24 said that its data suggested the plane’s ‘‘vertical speed was unstable after take-off’’.
Boeing said that it had a technical team on its way to the crash site. – The Times