Posted on 03/10/2019 7:21:50 AM PDT by markomalley
An Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after takeoff from Ethiopia's capital on Sunday morning, killing all 157 on board, authorities said, as grieving families rushed to airports in Addis Ababa and the destination, Nairobi. More than 30 nationalities are among the dead.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash of the Boeing 737-8 MAX plane, which was new and had been delivered to the airline in November. The pilot sent out a distress call and was given clearance to return, the airline's CEO told reporters.
The state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, widely considered the best-managed airline in Africa, calls itself Africa's largest carrier and has ambitions of becoming the gateway to the continent. It is known as an early buyer of new aircraft as it assertively expands.
The airline said 149 passengers and eight crew members were thought to be on the plane. Kenyans, Canadians, Chinese, Americans, Ethiopians, Italians, French, British, Egyptians, Indians, Slovakians and others were among the dead, said the airline's CEO, Tewolde Gebremariam.
(Excerpt) Read more at journaltimes.com ...
The state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, widely considered the best-managed airline in Africa
state owned and run,...............nuff sed
widely considered the best managed,......... by the state
Kinda like saying, 'the best sushi in Winnepeg.'
” The pilot sent out a distress call and was given clearance to return,”
That’s an important piece of information
"...Ethiopian Airlines, widely considered the best-run airline in Africa..."
Withhold judgment. All possible: Mechanical-, pilot-, weather-, terrorism-related.
Or, it could be a faulty airplane.
These jets have so much software regulating the aircraft on takeoff and landing that even experienced pilots can be overwhelmed by them. The recent crash in Asia of a brand new identical model was, at least with initial reports, very similar. Sorry Boeing but your software seems faulty and these jets must be recalled and fixed. Not safe to fly.
First Lion Air (Indonesia) and now this one. Is there a defect in the 737-8 MAX?
I believe this is the second 737-Max crash in its first year.
The problem here comes down to two things -- Boeing making major changes to the way the 737 computer system works without clearly training the pilots, and pilots who don't truly have enough stick time to understand how to fly the plane in emergency situations.
Commercial pilots these days spend very little time actually "flying" the plane. You'll hear the autopilot disengage alarm most times just as the plane crosses the threshold on landing, and the computer is given control almost immediately after takeoff. So a pilot with 6000 hours of flying time actually has very little of that in stick time.
Combine that with the full computerization of the plane and pilots are struggling to react to in-flight emergencies -- Air France, Indonesia, and Ethiopia now being prime examples.
It's a Catch 22, though. I spend a lot of time in the air. I would prefer the computer systems flying the plane in most instances. But our pilots need more time on the stick -- and in simulators -- than before.
Look to the Leap CFM engine in both...they have a checkered history and were being rushed to catch up to 737 production as Boeing has fields of 737s co.pleted without engines.
All true. But it would appear that now over 300 people have died in crashes of the world’s most advanced ( and complicated) aircraft. Suspect there are Boeing software engineers who will not be sleeping well. Will be surprised if the FAA does not take a definitive action that Boeing is sure not to like. Then again they don’t pay all those K street lobbyists for nothing.
In the sixties, when TWA was a power house, a number of their top pilots and operations executives were hired by Ethiopia to set up this airline and have it operate on the US model as opposed to European or Asian standards.
The “best-run airline in Africa” sounds a bit like the “prettiest girl in North Dakota”.
They type 737-8 has two crashes, both shortly after take off. I would not want to be flying in a 737-8 until the cause of these crashes has been determined.
Perhaps, but irrelevant unless we know what he was talking about. Who was the pilot? Ethiopian? Egyptian? British? What?
Distress call? If declaring an IFE, what? A burned out bulb? A loss of an engine? What?
One pilots emergency is another’s ho-hum minor incident. That is why it is important to know who the aircrew are and their experience.
Maybe, but about 80% of mishaps are pilot-related, not mechanical.
I spent a career flying fighters and jets are jets, and Boeing does not train all the pilots and computers are easy and being overwhelmed by “computers” is a rare thing, and Boeing jets are not fly-by-wire like Airbus.
Data management is a challenge but if trained properly you fly the jet, first, then handle issues if they happen.
Now it is Brits that run third-world airlines, Third-world maintenance and pilot certification processes are sub-par.
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