WASHINGTON: A draft interim report from Ethiopian crash investigators circulated to US government agencies concludes the March 2019 crash of a Boeing 737 Max was caused by the plane’s design, sources said yesterday.
Unlike most interim reports, this one includes a probable cause determination, conclusions and recommendations, which are typically not made until a final report is issued.
The US National Transportation Safety Board has been given a chance to lodge concerns or propose changes, the sources said.
NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss confirmed the agency had received the draft interim report, but declined to comment on whether the agency would suggest any changes.
According to Bloomberg News, which first reported the contents of the interim draft, the conclusions say little or nothing about the performance of Ethiopian Airlines or its flight crew and that has raised concern with some participants in the investigation.
The Ethiopian interim report contrasts with a final report into the Lion Air crash released last October by Indonesia which faulted Boeing’s design of cockpit software on the 737 Max but also cited errors by the airline’s workers and crew.
Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashed in an open field six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, killing 157 passengers and crew. The Boeing 737 Max has been grounded worldwide for nearly a year after the two fatal crashes.
Under rules overseen by the United Nations’ Montreal-based aviation agency, ICAO, Ethiopia should publish a final report by the first anniversary of the crash on March 10 but now looks set to release an interim report with elements that would normally be included in the final report.
A preliminary accident report by the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority released in April last year said faulty sensor readings and multiple automatic commands to push down the nose of a Boeing plane contributed to the fatal crash and left the crew struggling to regain control.
A US House investigative report into the crashes faulted the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) approval of the plane and Boeing’s design failures, saying the flights were “doomed.”
The preliminary investigative findings from the US House Transportation Committee called the FAA’s certification review of the 737 Max “grossly insufficient” and said the agency had failed in its duty to identify key safety problems.
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