The Boeing Misery

On the 10th of March this year, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 was flying from Addis Ababa to Nairobi when it crashed mere minutes after takeoff, creating a crater upon impact and killing all 157 people on board.

The pilot had requested to return to the airport 3 minutes into the flight but all contact was lost 6 minutes after the flight took off. The people aboard were of over 35 different nationalities and at least 22 passengers were United Nations (UN) staff headed for the annual UN environment assembly held in Nairobi. The pilot of the aircraft held an “excellent flying record” of over 8,000 hours. The copilot, however, only had 200 hours of flight experience. The aircraft involved in the crash, a Boeing 737 Max, was brand new and flying in good weather. Flight radar data has shown that the aircraft had an unstable vertical airspeed, which is abnormal.

After the aircraft had crashed, multiple airlines and countries grounded their 737 Max planes, with China being the first. Both planes were 737 Maxes that crashed shortly after takeoff. However, the two airlines have vastly different reputations. Lion Air had a notorious safety record even before the crash of Lion Air flight 610, while Ethiopian Airlines is widely considered Africa’s best airline. The two crashes happened within a relatively short time frame, which prompted concerns as to whether the two crashes had a similar cause. A preliminary review has shown similarities between the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the Lion Air crash, which occurred a few months prior to the latter crash. The flight data from the Lion Air crash has shown that the Boeing 737 had its nose pushed down, possibly because of faulty sensor readings. The pilots pulled the nose up to counteract this, but their actions were repeatedly overridden by the system, causing the plane’s nose to be pushed down again. This left a distinct pattern on the data for the flight’s vertical speed, with the intervals being 15 to 20 seconds long. Data on flight 302 is less clear and incomplete, but it appears to have a similar pattern. Although this movement of the plane can occur naturally, the intervals are normally either five to eight seconds or they last a minute or longer. With the above information in mind, the abnormal changes of vertical airspeed in the Ethiopian Airlines flight have no other obvious explanation. However, both crashes are still under investigation and the conclusion from a preliminary report can be changed further into the investigation.

The system in question is the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), which was meant to compensate for the changes in the position and size of the engine on the wings and would change the aerodynamics of the aircraft. The relocated engines would have caused the nose of the Boeing 737 Max to be pitched higher. A high angle of attack increases the risk of a stall, therefore MCAS pushes the nose of the plane down in order to prevent such. MCAS acts without the pilot’s input, which is problematic for the pilots as they were originally uninformed of the existence of MCAS. This resulted in them being caught off guard when the nose of the plane was suddenly pushed down by the automated system.

Both the aircraft involved in the Lion Air and the Ethiopian Airlines crashes did not have two crucial safety features, as they were sold as extras. These were the angle of attack indicator, which would display the readings of the angle of attack sensors, and the disagree light, which would be activated if the angle of attack readings of the angle of attack sensors conflicted with one another, thus helping the pilots identify the error affecting the aircraft.

The crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 has had a detrimental impact on Boeing. The Boeing 737 Max had became Boeing’s bestselling aircraft before the crash, with over 350 of them being delivered since they were put into service in 2017, and around 5,000 more on order. After the crash, Boeing’s stocks have plunged, and some of the victim’s families are suing Boeing for failing to notify pilots of the updated software. The crash has also caused doubt about the safety of the 737 Max, and has dealt a blow to Boeing’s credibility. Questions have also been raised as to whether the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Boeing have done enough to train pilots on how to deal with the new features of the Boeing 737 Max.

Funerals have also been held for the victims of this crashed. However, as the remains of the deceased would take up to six months to identify, the families of the victims had no bodies to bury. They were each given a one-kilogram sack of scorched earth from the crash site. Some families still believe that there would not be full closure for them until the remains of their family members have been recovered.

As the investigation into the crash is still ongoing, it will take a considerable amount of time to fully determine the cause of the crash. Until then, there will not be full clarity on why Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed.

Citations:

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