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- Ethiopia’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) released its preliminary report on the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 on Thursday.
- The report presented data which shows that faulty readings from a malfunctioning angle-of-attack (AOA) sensor triggered the Boeing 737 Max’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) that is designed to automatically push the nose of the plane downward.
- The preliminary report did not assign causation for the crash, and a final report is expected at a later date.
- The report also gave us a glimpse inside the cockpit of the ill-fated flight with a detailed breakdown of the actions of and the communications between the pilots.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
On Thursday, Ethiopia’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) released its preliminary report on the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302. The crash, which took place on March 10, marked the second fatal crash of a nearly brand-new Boeing 737 Max airliner since October and precipitated the grounding of the global 737 Max fleet.
The AIB’s initial findings present data from the crashed plane’s flight-data recorder (FDR), which shows that faulty readings from a malfunctioning angle-of-attack (AOA) sensor triggered the 737 Max’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) that is designed to automatically push the nose of the plane downward.
Read more: FAA expects Boeing to come up with new software to fix the grounded 737 Max in a matter of weeks.
"Shortly after liftoff, the value of the left angle of attack sensor deviated from the right one and reached 74.5 degrees while the right angle of attack sensor value was 15.3 degrees," the report said.
The preliminary report did not assign causation for the crash, and a final report is expected at a later date.
In its preliminary report, the AIB also gave the public a glimpse inside the cockpit of the ill-fated flight with a detailed breakdown of the actions and the communications between the flight crew.
Here’s a closer look at how Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 unfolded.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 was operated by a Boeing 737 Max 8 registration ET-AVJ.
Wikimedia Commons/LLBG Spotter/ CC BY-SA 2.0,
ET-AVJ was delivered brand-new to Ethiopian Airlines on November 15, 2018. It was the fourth 737 Max to enter service with Ethiopian.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 was cleared for takeoff from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport by air traffic control at 8:37 a.m. on the morning of Sunday, March 10, 2019.
EQRoy / Shutterstock.com
The flight lifted off at 8:38 a.m. and headed toward Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya.
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See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- We drove a $39,000 Toyota RAV4 that outsells rivals from Honda, Nissan, and Subaru. Here are its coolest features.
- A little-known quirk on the Boeing 737 may have made things difficult for the pilots of the crashed Ethiopian Airlines flight
- Boeing’s CEO offered his fullest apology yet after Ethiopia’s investigation pointed the finger at him
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Source: Business Insider – bzhang@businessinsider.com (Benjamin Zhang)