An Ethiopian delegation led by the Chief Investigation Bureau has arrived in the French Safety Investigation (BEA) facilities for investigation to begin on what led to the Ethiopian Airlines flight crashing on Sunday just six minutes after takeoff.
Ethiopia Airlines Chief Executive Tewolde GebreMariam on Wednesday said that Ethiopia did not have the necessary technology to analyse the black boxes therefore sending them to Paris for investigation. It is hoped that now that the black box is in Paris, investigations will determine what caused the four-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 to crash killing all 157 people on board.
Investigators will be able to examine the flight data recorder, which collects information about the plane’s altitude and airspeed, and the cockpit voice recorder, which may help in explaining the flight control difficulties. Captain Yared Getachew had reported a ‘flight control’ problem as the aircraft was well below the minimum safe height from the ground during a climb and requested permission to return to Addis Ababa just three minutes after takeoff, the investigation will determine what caused the problems.
The investigations will also determine if there is any connection to the Lion Air jet crash last October which claimed 189 passengers after it crashed off the Indonesian coast involving the same plane model (Boeing 737 MAX 8).
Boeing has temporarily suspended all operations of the Boeing 737 MAX globally after many countries and airlines around the world ground the model from their fleets. Analysts estimate that it could cost Boeing up to 2.5 billion dollars a month and if found at fault, the company could also face a welter of lawsuits from airlines affected by the disruption.
Families of some of the 157 victims continue to stream in to the crash site with many expressing frustration over the lack of information and the time it will take to identify the victims. So severe was the impact of the crash and fire that remains are just charred fragments, meaning it could take weeks or even months to identify.
