They find obvious similarities between the two Boeing accidents

Preliminary information from the Ethiopian Airlines flight data recorder, in which 157 people died after its collapse a week ago, show "obvious similarities" with the previous loss in Indonesia with the same type of plane, said the Minister of Transport. d & # 39; Ethiopia

The announcement was made public as thousands marched through the capital, Addis Ababa, to accompany 17 empty coffins covered with the national flag at a funeral in the honor of the Ethiopian victims . The coffins were empty because the authorities indicated that the process of recovery and identification of the remains would take months. Some family members fainted.

The crash of Ethiopian flight 302 on March 10 and that of a Lion Air plane in Indonesia in October – Boeing 737 Max 8 – led the United States and many other countries to ban thefts of this type of aircraft. # 39; air. In Argentina, the first Aerolineas Argentinas decided to leave their 737 Max 8 ashore, and the country has now closed its airspace according to this model.

The recorders of Flight 302, which collapsed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, were found "in good condition, allowing us to extract almost all the data from the inside". said Dagmawit Moges, Minister of Transport.

The information retrieved so far from the data logger indicated "obvious similarities" between the two accidents, he said. The data logger and the badpit voice recorder were sent to Paris for badysis by the BEA Air Accident Investigation Agency (Bureau of Investigation and Analysis for the Safety of the Aircraft). civil Aviation).

Moges did not give details of the similarities.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stated that satellite tracking data showed that the latest movements of Flight 302 of Ethiopian Airlines were similar to those of Indonesia's Lion Air flight 610 , which had collapsed at sea. Java in October with 189 people on board.

Both aircraft were flying with irregular altitude changes, which could indicate that pilots were struggling to control the aircraft. Shortly after takeoff, both crews attempted to return to the airport but collided.

Some suspected that defects in sensors and software could have contributed to these incidents.

Moges said the Ethiopian government plans to release detailed results in a month.

The funeral took place one day after the authorities began distributing sacks of scorched earth from the crash site to the relatives of the victims because of problems in identifying the remains.

Relatives confirmed to have received a bag containing a kilo of dirt from the place of the accident. Many parents went to the dusty terrain outside Addis Ababa, where the tragedy occurred.