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The families of the victims are searching the site of the Ethiopian Airlines accident on March 15, 2019. By TONY KARUMBA (AFP)
Boeing is upgrading the stall prevention software for its 737 MAX, industry sources said, while French investigators had exchanged their black box data for the last of two fatal accidents involving the plane. plane in recent months.
The MAX was blocked worldwide after the Ethiopian Airlines disaster that killed 157 people on board, and the fallout left the company, regulators and airlines struggling to react.
Boeing will fine-tune its MCAS system – involved in the crash of a 737 Air Max 737 MAX 8 in Indonesia in October – within 10 days, said two sources, who warned that the cause of the latest crash did not occur. had not been determined yet.
Boeing halted deliveries of its best-selling model before the hotfix, which was already running before the latest incident occurred near Addis Ababa.
When asked for clarification on the patch's schedule, a spokeswoman for Boeing's Friday would have only stated that it would be installed in the "next few weeks".
The French authorities badyzed the black boxes of the Ethiopian boat, only a few months old and crushed a few minutes after takeoff, to determine the cause of the accident.
An Ethiopian delegation handed over the badpit flight data and voice recorders, which were damaged during the disaster, to the French aviation safety agency BEA for the opening of the aircraft. survey on Friday.
The Lion Air crash also took place just minutes after takeoff, killing 189 people, and US authorities claim that there is evidence of similarity between the accidents.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the accident site's findings and the "recently refined satellite data" warranted "further investigation into the possibility of a common cause of both incidents".
Several US pilots have also reported problems with the MCAS and the FAA said that it had ordered Boeing to issue a fix by April.
The aerospace giant held a teleconference Thursday with at least three carriers using the 737 MAX and handed them the patch, a source said, and the other airlines will receive it early next week.
Meanwhile, US pilots asked about training provided to flight crews.
One of the MAX 8 pilots on Monday told AFP that US-trained pilots – many of them military – could have responded quickly to the MCAS fault, had it happened during the accident last weekend.
And Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, known for his safe and unhindered landing of a damaged plane on the Hudson River in New York, has questioned the lack of experience of the first Ethiopian officer on the flight convicted, who would have 200 hours of flight.
"A badpit crew has to be a team of experts, not a captain or an apprentice," he said on social media.
But he was also worried about the delay in obtaining a hotfix.
"Since the Lion Air accident, it was obvious that a redesign of the 737 MAX 8 was urgent (…) and that the proposed patches do not go far enough."
Boeing shares affected
Thousands of miles away, clueless families were demanding answers as they walked into the deep black crater where the plane crashed in a field outside the capital, disintegrating under impact.
Ethiopian Airlines, the largest carrier in Africa, has sent black boxes to France as it does not have the equipment needed to badyze the data. The information they contain can explain 90% of accidents, according to aviation experts.
An FAA emergency order grounded the 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft to new order, which has the effect of taking the plane out of the sky in the world.
This decision comes after a growing number of airlines and countries have decided not to fly planes or to ban their exit from their airspace until it is established. that there were no more security issues.
US President Donald Trump told reporters that "the security of the American people and all peoples is our main concern."
Trump and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed exchanged condolences Friday, Abiy said on Twitter, the US president praising Ethiopian Airlines as "a solid institution" and offering technical support.
The 737 MAX series is Boeing's best-selling model and remains relatively new with less than 500 in service.
According to the FAA, 74 of them are registered in the United States and 387 are used worldwide with 59 carriers.
Boeing's shares have fallen 10% since Sunday's crash, wiping out about $ 25 billion worth of value, after regaining ground on Friday after announcing that a fix would be coming soon.
"Panicked voice"
According to the flight data recorder, the pilots of Flight 610 from Lion Air had trouble controlling the aircraft, the MCAS having repeatedly dug up the nose after takeoff.
At least four US pilots later complained about the same problem with the plane, according to documents reviewed by AFP on the aviation safety reporting system, a voluntary database. on incidents managed by NASA.
In two anonymous reports on flights just after the Lion Air disaster, US pilots have disconnected the autopilot and corrected the trajectory of the aircraft.
Ethiopian Airlines pilots reported similar difficulties before their aircraft collapsed on the ground.
According to the New York Times, air traffic controllers saw the Ethiopian Airlines aircraft "oscillate several hundred feet" before the accident.
Speaking of a "panicked voice", the convicted plane 's captain asked permission to return to the airport almost immediately after take – off, the aircraft having "accelerated to a abnormal speed, "the newspaper reported Thursday, citing a person who had examined the communications.
"Break, request back home," said the pilot quoted by the Times just before the accident. "Demand vector (direction) for landing."
After the Lion Air accident, Boeing was criticized for failing to adequately inform 737 pilots of the operation of the stall prevention system.
Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, said the captain of the convicted flight was an experienced aviator with more than 8,000 flight hours.
burs-ft / hs
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