‘Clear similarities’ between Boeing crashes in Ethiopia, Indonesia
PILOTS’ UNION CONCERNED ABOUT PILOTLESS PLANES
NEW YORK: Flight recorder data recovered from the wreckage of Boeing 737 MAX planes that crashed in Ethiopia and Indonesia shows “clear similarities,” Addis Ababa said on Sunday as the US maker announced it was finalising a software update for its under fire anti-stall system.
Pressure was mounting meanwhile on the US Federal Aviation Administration, which insisted it had followed standard procedures in certifying the plane model, even as it was reported to have come under investigation by the Department of Transport.
“The 737 MAX programme followed standard certification agency said.
It said its procedures were “well established and have consistently produced safe aircraft designs.”
But reported similarities between the March 10 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8, killing all 157 on board, and the Lion Air crash in October of the same model of plane in Indonesia, leaving 189 dead, have raised serious doubts and triggered Boeing’s biggest crisis in decades.
The 737 MAX is a relatively new aircraft, having entered service only in May 2017 as Boeing’s answer to Airbus’s medium-haul A320 Neo.
Ethiopian Transport Minister Dagmawit Moges said on Sunday that a study of the flight data recorder retrieved from the Ethiopian plane had shown “clear similarities” to that of the Lion Air flight in Indonesia. certification the FAA’S process,” the FRANKFURT: The new head of Germany’s pilots’ association has come out strongly against moves towards licensing pilotless aircraft.
“The highest level of safety can only be achieved in a combination of human and machine,”vereinigung Cockpit (VC) president Markus Wahl said.
Wahl pointed in particular to moves to do away with the third pilot on long-haul routes, seeing this as a step along the road to fully autonomous planes.
He declined to comment specifically on the recent accident involving an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max.
But he said there was a question mark over how much more technology in the cockpit pilots would have to master.
Wahl also voiced concern about the increase in unmanned flying objects, such as drones, and about future plans for pilotless flying taxis to carry passengers to airports, calling for regulation.
“We will watch developments here extremely critically,” he said.
— dpa
She said the parallels would be the “subject of further study.”
As investigators continue their work, preliminary findings in the Lion crash have focused on a possible malfunction of an anti-stall system known as the MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System). Boeing developed that system, because of the unusually forward placement of the plane’s engines, to avoid a stall.
The manufacturer said on Sunday it was close to releasing a long-awaited software patch to the system.
“While investigators continue to work to establish definitive conclusions, Boeing is finalising its development of a previously-announced software update and pilot training revision that will address the MCAS flight control law’s behaviour in response to erroneous sensor inputs,” president and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said.
Experts have questioned the FAA’S certification process after learning that American pilots had lodged serious complaints about the system.
According to a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday, the FAA had come under an “unusual inquiry” by the Department of Transport over the issue, and has warned officials to safeguard computer files, according to sources quoted by the paper.
The Journal said the probe would zero in on Seattle-area FAA offices. Boeing airliners are built near Seattle.
A Seattle Times report on Sunday said the FAA had delegated part of the certification process for the plane — including the MCAS — to Boeing engineers.