Newly released emails show Ethiopian Airlines
reached out for safety information before fatal cгash.
Boeing is facing new scrutiny over its handling of the 737 MAX
MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) situation. The New York Times reported today (October 9) it has uncovered emails supporting claims that Ethiopian Airlines’
chief pilot reached out to the manufacturer in late 2018 with an “urgent” request for information a month after the MCAS-related crash of a Lion Air 373 MAX in Indonesia,
But Boeing Declined To Respond.
Three months after the chief pilot’s request,
an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crashed shortly after takeoff kіling
all 157 on board.
The main cause of the accident was determined to be a failure
of the MCAS related to a faulty angle-of-attack sensor.
The U.S. Airline Pilots Association union (ALPA) supports the airline
in its claim, citing that after the Lion Air crash,
Boeing had proactively reached out to U.S. airlines and pilots to explain technical MCAS safety issues, such as how the system interacts with angle-of-attack data.
Boeing 737 MAX pilot Dennis Taier, ALPA’s spokesman, said,
“Who knows what [Ethiopian Airlines] would have done with the information, but not having it seals the deal.
Any information given the Ethiopian pilots, like we had, could have made the difference between life and dеath.”
The December 2022 Ethiopian aviation authority’s accident report read, in part,
“The investigation found the questions raised by the airline to be safety critical, and if Boeing had answered the questions raised by
the training department either directly or indirectly
[the accident might not have happened].”
https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/boeing-declined-an-urgent-request-for-mcas-information-from-ethiopian-airlines/