Pilot asked to abort take-off in ‘panicky voice’ before fatal crash
● Flight recorders from doomed Ethiopian Airlines plane are analysed
pilot of the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed requested permission “in a panicky voice” to return to the airport shortly after take-off, it has been reported, as the airline said the investigation into the flight recorders had started.
The report cited “a person who reviewed air traffic communications” from last Sunday’s flight saying controllers noticed the plane was moving up and down by hundreds of feet, with its speed appearing unusually fast.
An airline spokesman has said the pilot was given permission to return.
However, the plane crashed minutes later outside Addis Ababa, killing all 157 on board.
French authorities now have the plane’s flight data and voice recorders for analysis.
They have said it was unclear whether data could be retrieved. The data recorder appeared to show damage.
Ethiopian Airlines said an Ethiopian delegation led by its chief accident investigator had arrived in Paris yesterday.
In Ethiopia, officials started taking DNA samples from victims’ family members to assist in identifying remains. The dead came from 35 countries.
Countries including the United States have grounded the Boeing 737 Max 8 as the Us-based company faces the challenge of proving the jets are safe to fly amid suspicions that faulty software might have contributed to two crashes that killed 346 people in less than six months.
The decision to send the flight recorders to France was seen as a rebuke to the United States, which held out longer than most other countries in grounding the jets. The US National Transportation Safety Board sent three investigators to help french authorities. Boeing executives announced they had paused delivery of the Max, although the company planned to continue build the ing the jets while it weighs the effect of the grounding on production.
The US Federal Aviation Administration in grounding the planes said regulators had new data from the satellitebased tracking that showed the movements of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 were similar to those of Lion Air Flight 610. That flight crashed into the Java Sea off Indonesia in October, killing 189 people.
Boeing said it supports the grounding of its planes as a precautionary step, while reitto erating its “full confidence” in the safety of the 737 Max. Engineers are making changes to the system designed to prevent an aerodynamic stall if sensors detect the jet’s nose is pointed too high and its speed is too slow.
Satellite-based data showed both the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air planes flew with erratic altitude changes that could indicate the pilots struggled to control the aircraft. Both crews tried to return to the airport.
The Max is the latest upgrade the Boeing 737s. Because its engines were larger and heavier, they were placed higher and farther forward on the wings. That created concern the plane might be slightly more prone to an aerodynamic stall if not flown properly, so Boeing developed software to prevent that.
Investigators looking into the Indonesian crash are examining whether the software automatically pushed the plane’s nose down repeatedly and whether the Lion Air pilots knew how to solve that problem. Ethiopian Airlines says its pilots received special training on how to deal with the Max’s anti-stall software.
At the crash site in Hejere, about 31 miles from Addis Ababa, searchers continued to pick through the debris. Blue plastic sheeting covered the wreckage of the plane.
Anxious family members started giving DNA samples and waited for news on when identification of remains would start. Members of Israel’s ZAKA emergency response team were granted access to the site and were doing forensic work.