https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/04/04/ethiopia-plane-crash-boeing/3361880002/
Boeing CEO accepts blame for two plane crashes, apologizes to families of victims: 'We own it'
John Bacon, Jane Onyanga-Omara and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY Published 4:45 a.m. ET April 4, 2019 | Updated 7:24 p.m. ET April 4, 2019
Boeing Company CEO Dennis Muilenburg is apologizing after two deadly 737 MAX plane crashes. Muilenburg says Boeing has teams of experts "working tirelessly" to prevent anymore accidents. USA TODAY
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The chairman of Boeing acknowledged Thursday for the first time that a new maneuvering system was responsible for two plane crashes that killed almost 350 people, and he apologized to the families and friends of the victims.
"We at Boeing are sorry for the lives lost in the recent 737 accidents and are relentlessly focused on safety to ensure tragedies like this never happen again," CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a videotaped statement posted on Twitter.
Muilenburg said the details of airline accidents normally await a final report from governments, "but with the release of the preliminary report of the Ethiopian Flight 302 accident investigation, it is apparent that in both flights, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, known as MCAS, activated in response to erroneous angle of attack information."
That preliminary report, issued Thursday, indicated the crew of the Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed last month, killing all 157 people aboard, performed all procedures recommended by the aerospace giant but failed to gain control of the doomed aircraft.
Muilenburg, who spoke from the floor of a Boeing hangar, said the history of the aviation industry shows that most accidents are caused by a "chain of events," and the latest tragedies are no exception.
"We know we can break one of those chain links in these two accidents," he said. "As pilots have told us, erroneous activation of the MCAS function can add to what is already a high workload environment. It's our responsibility to eliminate this risk. We own it, and we know how to do it."
The jet experienced “nose dive conditions” almost immediately after takeoff, Ethiopian Minister of Transport Dagmawit Moges said.
"The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer but were not able to control the aircraft," Moges said at the news conference in the capital, Addis Ababa.
Peter Goelz, former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the report thickens the cloud hanging over Boeing and the FAA since the tragedy, the second crash of a Boeing 737 Max in five months.
Boeing updated its instructions on handling such an emergency after a Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October that killed all 189 people aboard.
"The news is that the pilots followed the instructions from Boeing that were endorsed by the FAA, and it didn't save the plane," Goelz told USA TODAY. "I don't see these planes getting back in the air anytime soon."
The report recommends that the flight control system should be reviewed by Boeing and that aviation authorities should verify the system before the aircraft is released to operation, Moges said.
Rescue workers search the site for pieces of the wreckage of an Ethiopia Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft near Bishoftu, Ethiopia, on March 13, 2019. (Photo: Stringer, EPA-EFE)
The report describes how the plane was less than two minutes into its flight from Addis Ababa on March 10 when one of the angles of attack sensors began providing faulty information, indicating an imminent stall. The pilots repeatedly tried without success to pull the jet's nose up, the report revealed.
"The captain called out three times 'pull up' and the first officer acknowledged," according to the report.
The aircraft's automated anti-stalling system, the MCAS, tried to force the nose down multiple times, the report says.
The pilots followed emergency procedures and turned off the system, the report says. The pilots tried to use the backup manual wheel, but the airplane was traveling too fast, according to the report. The jet crashed six minutes into takeoff.
The crash site was consistent with "high energy impact."
"The aircraft impacted in a farm field and created a crater approximately 10 meters deep, with a hole of about 28 meters width and 40 meters length," the report says. "Most of the wreckage was found buried in the ground."
A final report on the crash could be a year away, Moges said.
Also Thursday, the Washington Post reported that federal aviation regulators have ordered Boeing to fix a second problem with the flight-control system. Citing unnamed sources, the Post said the software problem pertains to software affecting flaps and other flight stabilization hardware.
Boeing said it is working on a software update for the MCAS. The FAA stressed in a statement that the report was preliminary and based on information "obtained during the early stages" of the investigation.
The FAA and NTSB remain involved in the investigation, the statement said.
"We continue to work toward a full understanding of all aspects of this accident," the FAA said. "As we learn more about the accident and findings become available, we will take appropriate action."
Moges has said preliminary data, obtained mostly from the plane's voice and data recorders, indicated "clear similarities" between the Indonesian and Ethiopian crashes. At issue is the MCAS installed on 737 Max aircraft to help compensate for heavy engines placed more forward on the wings.
Ethiopian officials rejected media reports that a bird strike may have damaged an angle of attack sensor that apparently fed incorrect information to the plane's MCAS.
In such an emergency, Boeing’s procedures instruct pilots to disconnect the MCAS and fly manually for the rest of the flight.
In a statement Thursday, Ethiopian Airlines said the preliminary report "clearly showed" that the pilots of the flight "followed the Boeing recommended and FAA approved emergency procedures to handle the most difficult emergency situation created on the airplane."
"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. As the investigation continues with more detailed analysis, as usual we will continue with our full cooperation with the investigation team," the airline's statement said.
After the Ethiopian disaster, 737 Max jets were grounded worldwide, pending a software fix Boeing is rolling out. The FAA said it expects to receive Boeing's software improvement plan for the 737 Max aircraft within weeks. The agency promised rigorous review before approving installation of any fixes.
Also at issue are thousands of the planes on order worldwide.
University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias, an expert in product liability, said the report does not bode well for Boeing – at least in the short term.
"All of the planes could be grounded for a while, and it raises questions about the planes now on order and being built," Tobias said. "These are mostly about economics, but the report may also implicate Boeing’s decisions in designing and certifying the plane and the FAA’s regulatory oversight."
Contributing: The Associated Press
More: Did bird hit on sensor doom Ethiopian Airlines flight?
More: Investigators say anti-stall system was activated in Ethiopian crash
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https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/04/world/ethiopian-airlines-crash-preliminary-report-intl/index.html
Boeing CEO 'sorry' for lives lost in 737 MAX accidents
By Oren Liebermann, Robyn Kriel and Kaleyesus Bekele
Updated 2339 GMT (0739 HKT) April 4, 2019
(CNN)The pilots on board Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 battled the plane's automated flight control systems for almost the entire duration of the six-minute flight, according to a preliminary report into the crash obtained by CNN on Thursday.
The captain and the first officer struggled as the Boeing 737 Max 8's systems, designed to prevent the plane stalling, repeatedly forced the nose of the plane down. For nearly six minutes, the report shows, the pilots worked through a series of procedures to try to regain control of the plane.
The problems on board the Ethiopian Airlines jet mirror those encountered on the doomed Lion Air Flight 610 -- which operated the same 737 Max 8 model and crashed in October -- in what could be a significant blow to Boeing as it struggles to get the aircraft back in service.
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg on Thursday afternoon said the company was "sorry for the lives lost" in the 737 Max crashes.
"These tragedies continue to weigh heavily on our hearts and minds, and we extend our sympathies to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302," he said in a statement.
The Ethiopian Airlines captain had called out "pull up" three times to tell the first officer to raise the nose, according to the preliminary crash report. Both pilots tried to pull the nose up together to keep the plane flying, but they were unable to regain control. In total, the anti-stall system pushed the nose down four times during the flight.
In the end, after the pilots had turned back to Addis Ababa, the automated system pitched the plane into a steep dive from which it was impossible to recover, and it crashed into the ground. All 157 people on board were killed.
The report on the Ethiopian Airlines crash does not specifically name the Max 8's plane's anti-stall system -- called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) -- which is suspected to have contributed to the Lion Air disaster.
But its findings make it likely that the MCAS system pushed the plane into a dive fueled by erroneous angle of attack sensor readings.
The MCAS system automatically lowers the nose of the plane when it receives information from its external angle of attack sensors that the aircraft is flying too slowly or steeply, and at risk of stalling.
Debris of the crashed Ethiopia Airlines plne near Bishoftu, 60km southeast of Addis Ababa.
Boeing is working on a change to the system's software. The company recognized the similarities between the two crashes and acknowledged the role of the MCAS system in an earlier statement on Thursday. "The preliminary report contains flight data recorder information indicating the airplane had an erroneous angle of attack sensor input that activated the MCAS function during the flight, as it had during the Lion Air 610 flight," the statement said.
"To ensure unintended MCAS activation will not occur again, Boeing has developed and is planning to release a software update to MCAS and an associated comprehensive pilot training and supplementary education program for the 737 Max."
In his apology on Thursday afternoon, Muilenburg said, "The history of our industry shows most accidents are caused by a chain of events. This again is the case here, and we know we can break one of those chain links in these two accidents."
Muilenburg acknowledged the "devastation of the families and friends of the loved ones who perished." He said "erroneous activation of the MCAS function can add to what is already a high workload environment" for pilots.
"It's our responsibility to eliminate this risk," he said. "We own it and we know how to do it."
Speaking before the release of the report, Ethiopian Minister of Transport Dagmawit Moges suggested that Boeing review "the aircraft flight control system related to the flight controllability."
She told reporters in Addis Ababa that her agency would recommend that aviation authorities verify that Boeing has "adequately addressed" flight control issues "before release of the aircraft to operations."
The preliminary report, which has not yet been publicly released, does not specify a cause for the crash. A final report could take as long as a year to produce.
Struggle began just after takeoff
The timeline of the flight, detailed in the preliminary report, reveals that the pilots' struggle to control the plane began moments after the plane took off from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, en route to Nairobi.
Just after takeoff, one of the angle of attack sensors on board the aircraft began providing faulty information to the aircraft's systems, indicating an imminent stall to the flight crew. A stick shaker -- another system intended to warn a pilot of an imminent stall -- began shaking the pilot's yoke. Incorrectly sensing a stall, the aircraft's system tried to force the nose down.
Investigators collect personal effects and other materials from the crash site of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
Recognizing a problem with the automatic trim, the pilots followed emergency procedures and turned off the system. Instead, the pilots tried to use the backup manual trim wheel to adjust the trim, but the airplane was traveling too fast and the manual trim wheel would have been physically impossible to operate, according to a 737 pilot who spoke with CNN.
In the final minute of the flight, the pilot told his first officer that they had to pull up together. Thirty-two seconds before the crash, both pilots tried to trim the nose up, and for a brief moment, the aircraft's stabilizer, controlled by the trim, made the corresponding change,
But five seconds later, the aircraft's automated systems once again trimmed the nose down, pitching the nose down even further, steepening the dive. The plane was angled 40 degrees nose down, hurtling towards the ground at 575 miles per hour as it crashed.
Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam has told CNN that it was too early to say whether the remedial actions being taken by Boeing would be sufficient. He added that the preliminary report proved "all the speculators with false allegations" wrong, referring to criticism and doubts over the pilot's qualifications. The airline had "always been confident" of its pilots, he said.
Representatives of US pilots gave a cautious welcome to the report. "The initial findings of the Ethiopian investigation confirm for us that an MCAS malfunction is a serious emergency and not a benign event," said Captain Jason Goldberg, a spokesman for the American Pilots Association. "We remain cautious and hopeful that the potential fix will be thoroughly vetted and not hurried or fast tracked. The APA will remain actively engaged to ensure that the 737 Max will fly again only when all stakeholders are satisfied the aircraft is ready."
CNN's Robyn Kriel and journalist Kaleyesus Bekele reported from Addis Ababa. Oren Liebermann wrote from Jerusalem and Ray Sanchez from New York. CNN's David Shortell and Richard Quest contributing reporting.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/airlines/a27047293/boeing-apology-737-max-8-crashes/
Boeing Takes Responsibility For Both 737 Max 8 Crashes and Apologizes
Boeing's CEO apologized for the two incidents and says a software update is imminent.
By Sam Blum
Apr 4, 2019
Getty Images Europe
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg apologized on Thursday for the two 737 Max 8 jet crashes that killed 360 people within five months.
In a video statement posted to Twitter, Muilenburg said the manufacturer assumes responsibility for the two fatal crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, both of which took place on the manufacturer's highly popular airliners.
"We at Boeing are sorry for the lives lost in the recent 737 accidents and are relentlessly focused on safety to ensure tragedies like this never happen again," the tweet read.
Muilenburg promised Boeing would issue a software update for its 737 Max 8 and 9 fleet, which has been grounded internationally following the Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10. Both flights crashed minutes after takeoff when an automated safety feature known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was triggered erroneously, sending each aircraft into a fatal nosedive. The MCAS system is meant to activate in the event of a plane stalling, and automatically tilts a plane's nose downward.
A preliminary report issued by the Ethiopian government on Wednesday said pilots followed Boeing's recommended safety protocol, but still failed to avoid the crash, which killed all 157 people onboard. The Lion Air flight crashed last November when a faulty sensor on the plane's fuselage triggered the MCAS, sending the plane into an irreversible descent into the Java Sea, killing 189 people.
Muilenburg maintains that a software update that will rectify the MCAS issue will be ready within the coming weeks.
He said in the statement:
https://www.rt.com/news/455587-boeing-sorry-lives-lost-crashes/
‘Sorry for lives lost’: Boeing admits faulty system part of ‘chain of events’ in 737 MAX crashes
Published time: 4 Apr, 2019 19:36 Edited time: 4 Apr, 2019 21:19
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The angle of attack sensor marked on the nose of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 at the company's factory in Renton, Washington © Reuters / Lindsey Wasson
uted to two fatal air accidents. Investigators had long suspected the system’s role in the disasters.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 plunged into a field shortly after takeoff in March, killing all 157 people on board. Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 nosedived into the sea last October, killing all 189 passengers and crew. Investigators noted “clear similarities” between both accidents.
"The full details of what happened in the two accidents will be issued by the government authorities in the final reports,” Muilenburg said in a video posted Thursday. “It's apparent that in both flights the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, known as MCAS, activated in response to [the] erroneous angle of attack information," he continued.
The MCAS system reads the 737 MAX’s angle of attack (the angle of the plane’s nose) through a nose-mounted sensor. If the nose drifts too far upward, it manipulates the tail to keep the plane level and avoid a stall. However, investigators and Boeing whistleblowers claim that the sensors can deliver false readings, and the system can overcompensate, throwing the aircraft into a dive.
Muilenberg’s statement comes on the same day Ethiopian investigators determined that Flight 302’s crew “had performed all the procedures, repeatedly, provided by [Boeing], but was not able to control the aircraft.” CNN, claiming to have seen the full report, described how the pilots fought the plane’s MCAS system for the entirety of the six-minute flight, but were unable to pull the plane’s nose up and regain control.
Also on rt.com Boeing must review 737 MAX flight control system; pilots followed recommended procedures – Ethiopia
The 737 MAX 8 is grounded worldwide following the Ethiopian Airlines disaster, and Boeing is currently previewing a software update that Muilenberg said will “eliminate the possibility” of a similar accident happening again. The update will need to be approved by air regulators worldwide before the 737 MAX will take to the sky again.
A group of Boeing engineers told the Seattle Times last month that pilots were unaware of how to override the MCAS system, and Boeing has promised to rectify this too by providing “additional educational materials.” In addition, two critical safety features that could have warned pilots of an impending dive were sold as optional extras by the manufacturer. One of these – a warning light – will now be fitted as standard.
Also on rt.com ‘Inadequate training & certification?’ Senate panel seeks answers from FAA over Boeing 737 crashes
With the troubled jet grounded worldwide, attention has since focused on the Federal Aviation Administration’s certification of the jet. A Senate investigation is now focusing on examining whether the FAA’s inspectors were properly trained, and the Department of Transport is also forming a commission to review the FAA’s certification process.
In the aftermath of the most recent crash, a group of FAA and Boeing engineers claimed that the FAA delegated much of its safety review of the 737 MAX 8 to Boeing itself, and trusted the company’s conclusions. They also claimed that Boeing downplayed safety concerns involving the MCAS system to bring the jetliner to market faster.
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Boeing CEO accepts blame for two plane crashes, apologizes to families of victims: 'We own it'
John Bacon, Jane Onyanga-Omara and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY Published 4:45 a.m. ET April 4, 2019 | Updated 7:24 p.m. ET April 4, 2019
Boeing Company CEO Dennis Muilenburg is apologizing after two deadly 737 MAX plane crashes. Muilenburg says Boeing has teams of experts "working tirelessly" to prevent anymore accidents. USA TODAY
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The chairman of Boeing acknowledged Thursday for the first time that a new maneuvering system was responsible for two plane crashes that killed almost 350 people, and he apologized to the families and friends of the victims.
"We at Boeing are sorry for the lives lost in the recent 737 accidents and are relentlessly focused on safety to ensure tragedies like this never happen again," CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a videotaped statement posted on Twitter.
Muilenburg said the details of airline accidents normally await a final report from governments, "but with the release of the preliminary report of the Ethiopian Flight 302 accident investigation, it is apparent that in both flights, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, known as MCAS, activated in response to erroneous angle of attack information."
That preliminary report, issued Thursday, indicated the crew of the Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed last month, killing all 157 people aboard, performed all procedures recommended by the aerospace giant but failed to gain control of the doomed aircraft.
We at Boeing are sorry for the lives lost in the recent 737 accidents and are relentlessly focused on safety to ensure tragedies like this never happen again.
Watch the full video here: https://t.co/kZawq35YnZpic.twitter.com/G9uIHjxsWi
— Dennis A. Muilenburg (@BoeingCEO) April 4, 2019
The report reveals details of the crew's intense but ill-fated efforts to save the Boeing 737 Max from catastrophe.Watch the full video here: https://t.co/kZawq35YnZpic.twitter.com/G9uIHjxsWi
— Dennis A. Muilenburg (@BoeingCEO) April 4, 2019
Muilenburg, who spoke from the floor of a Boeing hangar, said the history of the aviation industry shows that most accidents are caused by a "chain of events," and the latest tragedies are no exception.
"We know we can break one of those chain links in these two accidents," he said. "As pilots have told us, erroneous activation of the MCAS function can add to what is already a high workload environment. It's our responsibility to eliminate this risk. We own it, and we know how to do it."
The jet experienced “nose dive conditions” almost immediately after takeoff, Ethiopian Minister of Transport Dagmawit Moges said.
"The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer but were not able to control the aircraft," Moges said at the news conference in the capital, Addis Ababa.
Peter Goelz, former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the report thickens the cloud hanging over Boeing and the FAA since the tragedy, the second crash of a Boeing 737 Max in five months.
Boeing updated its instructions on handling such an emergency after a Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October that killed all 189 people aboard.
"The news is that the pilots followed the instructions from Boeing that were endorsed by the FAA, and it didn't save the plane," Goelz told USA TODAY. "I don't see these planes getting back in the air anytime soon."
The report recommends that the flight control system should be reviewed by Boeing and that aviation authorities should verify the system before the aircraft is released to operation, Moges said.
Rescue workers search the site for pieces of the wreckage of an Ethiopia Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft near Bishoftu, Ethiopia, on March 13, 2019. (Photo: Stringer, EPA-EFE)
The report describes how the plane was less than two minutes into its flight from Addis Ababa on March 10 when one of the angles of attack sensors began providing faulty information, indicating an imminent stall. The pilots repeatedly tried without success to pull the jet's nose up, the report revealed.
"The captain called out three times 'pull up' and the first officer acknowledged," according to the report.
The aircraft's automated anti-stalling system, the MCAS, tried to force the nose down multiple times, the report says.
The pilots followed emergency procedures and turned off the system, the report says. The pilots tried to use the backup manual wheel, but the airplane was traveling too fast, according to the report. The jet crashed six minutes into takeoff.
The crash site was consistent with "high energy impact."
"The aircraft impacted in a farm field and created a crater approximately 10 meters deep, with a hole of about 28 meters width and 40 meters length," the report says. "Most of the wreckage was found buried in the ground."
A final report on the crash could be a year away, Moges said.
Also Thursday, the Washington Post reported that federal aviation regulators have ordered Boeing to fix a second problem with the flight-control system. Citing unnamed sources, the Post said the software problem pertains to software affecting flaps and other flight stabilization hardware.
Boeing said it is working on a software update for the MCAS. The FAA stressed in a statement that the report was preliminary and based on information "obtained during the early stages" of the investigation.
The FAA and NTSB remain involved in the investigation, the statement said.
"We continue to work toward a full understanding of all aspects of this accident," the FAA said. "As we learn more about the accident and findings become available, we will take appropriate action."
Moges has said preliminary data, obtained mostly from the plane's voice and data recorders, indicated "clear similarities" between the Indonesian and Ethiopian crashes. At issue is the MCAS installed on 737 Max aircraft to help compensate for heavy engines placed more forward on the wings.
Ethiopian officials rejected media reports that a bird strike may have damaged an angle of attack sensor that apparently fed incorrect information to the plane's MCAS.
In such an emergency, Boeing’s procedures instruct pilots to disconnect the MCAS and fly manually for the rest of the flight.
In a statement Thursday, Ethiopian Airlines said the preliminary report "clearly showed" that the pilots of the flight "followed the Boeing recommended and FAA approved emergency procedures to handle the most difficult emergency situation created on the airplane."
"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. As the investigation continues with more detailed analysis, as usual we will continue with our full cooperation with the investigation team," the airline's statement said.
After the Ethiopian disaster, 737 Max jets were grounded worldwide, pending a software fix Boeing is rolling out. The FAA said it expects to receive Boeing's software improvement plan for the 737 Max aircraft within weeks. The agency promised rigorous review before approving installation of any fixes.
Also at issue are thousands of the planes on order worldwide.
University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias, an expert in product liability, said the report does not bode well for Boeing – at least in the short term.
"All of the planes could be grounded for a while, and it raises questions about the planes now on order and being built," Tobias said. "These are mostly about economics, but the report may also implicate Boeing’s decisions in designing and certifying the plane and the FAA’s regulatory oversight."
Contributing: The Associated Press
More: Did bird hit on sensor doom Ethiopian Airlines flight?
More: Investigators say anti-stall system was activated in Ethiopian crash
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https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/04/world/ethiopian-airlines-crash-preliminary-report-intl/index.html
Boeing CEO 'sorry' for lives lost in 737 MAX accidents
By Oren Liebermann, Robyn Kriel and Kaleyesus Bekele
Updated 2339 GMT (0739 HKT) April 4, 2019
(CNN)The pilots on board Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 battled the plane's automated flight control systems for almost the entire duration of the six-minute flight, according to a preliminary report into the crash obtained by CNN on Thursday.
The captain and the first officer struggled as the Boeing 737 Max 8's systems, designed to prevent the plane stalling, repeatedly forced the nose of the plane down. For nearly six minutes, the report shows, the pilots worked through a series of procedures to try to regain control of the plane.
The problems on board the Ethiopian Airlines jet mirror those encountered on the doomed Lion Air Flight 610 -- which operated the same 737 Max 8 model and crashed in October -- in what could be a significant blow to Boeing as it struggles to get the aircraft back in service.
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg on Thursday afternoon said the company was "sorry for the lives lost" in the 737 Max crashes.
"These tragedies continue to weigh heavily on our hearts and minds, and we extend our sympathies to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302," he said in a statement.
The Ethiopian Airlines captain had called out "pull up" three times to tell the first officer to raise the nose, according to the preliminary crash report. Both pilots tried to pull the nose up together to keep the plane flying, but they were unable to regain control. In total, the anti-stall system pushed the nose down four times during the flight.
In the end, after the pilots had turned back to Addis Ababa, the automated system pitched the plane into a steep dive from which it was impossible to recover, and it crashed into the ground. All 157 people on board were killed.
The report on the Ethiopian Airlines crash does not specifically name the Max 8's plane's anti-stall system -- called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) -- which is suspected to have contributed to the Lion Air disaster.
But its findings make it likely that the MCAS system pushed the plane into a dive fueled by erroneous angle of attack sensor readings.
The MCAS system automatically lowers the nose of the plane when it receives information from its external angle of attack sensors that the aircraft is flying too slowly or steeply, and at risk of stalling.
Debris of the crashed Ethiopia Airlines plne near Bishoftu, 60km southeast of Addis Ababa.
Boeing is working on a change to the system's software. The company recognized the similarities between the two crashes and acknowledged the role of the MCAS system in an earlier statement on Thursday. "The preliminary report contains flight data recorder information indicating the airplane had an erroneous angle of attack sensor input that activated the MCAS function during the flight, as it had during the Lion Air 610 flight," the statement said.
"To ensure unintended MCAS activation will not occur again, Boeing has developed and is planning to release a software update to MCAS and an associated comprehensive pilot training and supplementary education program for the 737 Max."
In his apology on Thursday afternoon, Muilenburg said, "The history of our industry shows most accidents are caused by a chain of events. This again is the case here, and we know we can break one of those chain links in these two accidents."
Muilenburg acknowledged the "devastation of the families and friends of the loved ones who perished." He said "erroneous activation of the MCAS function can add to what is already a high workload environment" for pilots.
"It's our responsibility to eliminate this risk," he said. "We own it and we know how to do it."
Speaking before the release of the report, Ethiopian Minister of Transport Dagmawit Moges suggested that Boeing review "the aircraft flight control system related to the flight controllability."
She told reporters in Addis Ababa that her agency would recommend that aviation authorities verify that Boeing has "adequately addressed" flight control issues "before release of the aircraft to operations."
The preliminary report, which has not yet been publicly released, does not specify a cause for the crash. A final report could take as long as a year to produce.
Struggle began just after takeoff
The timeline of the flight, detailed in the preliminary report, reveals that the pilots' struggle to control the plane began moments after the plane took off from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, en route to Nairobi.
Just after takeoff, one of the angle of attack sensors on board the aircraft began providing faulty information to the aircraft's systems, indicating an imminent stall to the flight crew. A stick shaker -- another system intended to warn a pilot of an imminent stall -- began shaking the pilot's yoke. Incorrectly sensing a stall, the aircraft's system tried to force the nose down.
Investigators collect personal effects and other materials from the crash site of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
Recognizing a problem with the automatic trim, the pilots followed emergency procedures and turned off the system. Instead, the pilots tried to use the backup manual trim wheel to adjust the trim, but the airplane was traveling too fast and the manual trim wheel would have been physically impossible to operate, according to a 737 pilot who spoke with CNN.
In the final minute of the flight, the pilot told his first officer that they had to pull up together. Thirty-two seconds before the crash, both pilots tried to trim the nose up, and for a brief moment, the aircraft's stabilizer, controlled by the trim, made the corresponding change,
But five seconds later, the aircraft's automated systems once again trimmed the nose down, pitching the nose down even further, steepening the dive. The plane was angled 40 degrees nose down, hurtling towards the ground at 575 miles per hour as it crashed.
Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam has told CNN that it was too early to say whether the remedial actions being taken by Boeing would be sufficient. He added that the preliminary report proved "all the speculators with false allegations" wrong, referring to criticism and doubts over the pilot's qualifications. The airline had "always been confident" of its pilots, he said.
Representatives of US pilots gave a cautious welcome to the report. "The initial findings of the Ethiopian investigation confirm for us that an MCAS malfunction is a serious emergency and not a benign event," said Captain Jason Goldberg, a spokesman for the American Pilots Association. "We remain cautious and hopeful that the potential fix will be thoroughly vetted and not hurried or fast tracked. The APA will remain actively engaged to ensure that the 737 Max will fly again only when all stakeholders are satisfied the aircraft is ready."
CNN's Robyn Kriel and journalist Kaleyesus Bekele reported from Addis Ababa. Oren Liebermann wrote from Jerusalem and Ray Sanchez from New York. CNN's David Shortell and Richard Quest contributing reporting.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/airlines/a27047293/boeing-apology-737-max-8-crashes/
Boeing Takes Responsibility For Both 737 Max 8 Crashes and Apologizes
Boeing's CEO apologized for the two incidents and says a software update is imminent.
By Sam Blum
Apr 4, 2019
Getty Images Europe
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg apologized on Thursday for the two 737 Max 8 jet crashes that killed 360 people within five months.
In a video statement posted to Twitter, Muilenburg said the manufacturer assumes responsibility for the two fatal crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, both of which took place on the manufacturer's highly popular airliners.
"We at Boeing are sorry for the lives lost in the recent 737 accidents and are relentlessly focused on safety to ensure tragedies like this never happen again," the tweet read.
Muilenburg promised Boeing would issue a software update for its 737 Max 8 and 9 fleet, which has been grounded internationally following the Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10. Both flights crashed minutes after takeoff when an automated safety feature known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was triggered erroneously, sending each aircraft into a fatal nosedive. The MCAS system is meant to activate in the event of a plane stalling, and automatically tilts a plane's nose downward.
A preliminary report issued by the Ethiopian government on Wednesday said pilots followed Boeing's recommended safety protocol, but still failed to avoid the crash, which killed all 157 people onboard. The Lion Air flight crashed last November when a faulty sensor on the plane's fuselage triggered the MCAS, sending the plane into an irreversible descent into the Java Sea, killing 189 people.
Muilenburg maintains that a software update that will rectify the MCAS issue will be ready within the coming weeks.
He said in the statement:
We remain confident in the fundamental safety of the 737 MAX. All who fly on it—the passengers, flight attendants and pilots, including our own families and friends—deserve our best. When the MAX returns to the skies with the software changes to the MCAS function, it will be among the safest airplanes ever to fly.
Hopefully this is the last statement of this type he'll have to make.https://www.rt.com/news/455587-boeing-sorry-lives-lost-crashes/
‘Sorry for lives lost’: Boeing admits faulty system part of ‘chain of events’ in 737 MAX crashes
Published time: 4 Apr, 2019 19:36 Edited time: 4 Apr, 2019 21:19
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The angle of attack sensor marked on the nose of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 at the company's factory in Renton, Washington © Reuters / Lindsey Wasson
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uted to two fatal air accidents. Investigators had long suspected the system’s role in the disasters.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 plunged into a field shortly after takeoff in March, killing all 157 people on board. Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 nosedived into the sea last October, killing all 189 passengers and crew. Investigators noted “clear similarities” between both accidents.
"The full details of what happened in the two accidents will be issued by the government authorities in the final reports,” Muilenburg said in a video posted Thursday. “It's apparent that in both flights the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, known as MCAS, activated in response to [the] erroneous angle of attack information," he continued.
The MCAS system reads the 737 MAX’s angle of attack (the angle of the plane’s nose) through a nose-mounted sensor. If the nose drifts too far upward, it manipulates the tail to keep the plane level and avoid a stall. However, investigators and Boeing whistleblowers claim that the sensors can deliver false readings, and the system can overcompensate, throwing the aircraft into a dive.
Muilenberg’s statement comes on the same day Ethiopian investigators determined that Flight 302’s crew “had performed all the procedures, repeatedly, provided by [Boeing], but was not able to control the aircraft.” CNN, claiming to have seen the full report, described how the pilots fought the plane’s MCAS system for the entirety of the six-minute flight, but were unable to pull the plane’s nose up and regain control.
Also on rt.com Boeing must review 737 MAX flight control system; pilots followed recommended procedures – Ethiopia
The 737 MAX 8 is grounded worldwide following the Ethiopian Airlines disaster, and Boeing is currently previewing a software update that Muilenberg said will “eliminate the possibility” of a similar accident happening again. The update will need to be approved by air regulators worldwide before the 737 MAX will take to the sky again.
A group of Boeing engineers told the Seattle Times last month that pilots were unaware of how to override the MCAS system, and Boeing has promised to rectify this too by providing “additional educational materials.” In addition, two critical safety features that could have warned pilots of an impending dive were sold as optional extras by the manufacturer. One of these – a warning light – will now be fitted as standard.
Also on rt.com ‘Inadequate training & certification?’ Senate panel seeks answers from FAA over Boeing 737 crashes
With the troubled jet grounded worldwide, attention has since focused on the Federal Aviation Administration’s certification of the jet. A Senate investigation is now focusing on examining whether the FAA’s inspectors were properly trained, and the Department of Transport is also forming a commission to review the FAA’s certification process.
In the aftermath of the most recent crash, a group of FAA and Boeing engineers claimed that the FAA delegated much of its safety review of the 737 MAX 8 to Boeing itself, and trusted the company’s conclusions. They also claimed that Boeing downplayed safety concerns involving the MCAS system to bring the jetliner to market faster.
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