Ethopia's Lead Accident Investigator Arrives in France as Part of Boeing Crash Probe
15 March 2019 - 09:48PM
Dow Jones News
By Gabriele Steinhauser and Robert Wall
Ethiopian Airlines on Friday said the country's lead accident
investigator had arrived in France, kicking off the process there
to examine why a Boeing Co. (BA) 737 MAX 8 plane crashed earlier
this week near Addis Ababa.
The cockpit voice recorder and flight-data recorder that would
provide the strongest clue on what happened on the ill-fated
six-minute flight Sunday that killed all 157 people onboard arrived
in France on Thursday for analysis.
Ethiopia, which leads the international probe that also includes
experts from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and
Boeing, asked the French accident investigation office, the BEA, to
download the recordings and assist with the analysis.
State-owned Ethiopian Airlines on Friday said the chief of its
country's Accident Investigation Bureau was now at the BEA facility
outside Paris where the investigation has now kicked off.
Investigators could get a first sense of what happened with the
Boeing plane within a few hours, though a detailed assessment of
what happened with the plane could take months.
Regulators around the globe this week grounded the Boeing plane
out of safety concerns and because of possible similarities with
the crash of another 737 MAX 8, operated by Lion Air, in Indonesia
less than five months ago. The cause of that accident is still
under investigation. Accident investigators in that probe have said
they are looking at why the plane's anti-stall system repeatedly
pushed the MAX's nose down. They are also looking at plane
maintenance. The airline said the plane was well maintained.
U.S. and Canadian officials this week said that they had
received data on the Ethiopian flight that indicated its flight
path had similarities with the Lion Air crash.
Write to Gabriele Steinhauser at gabriele.steinhauser@wsj.com
and Robert Wall at robert.wall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 15, 2019 06:33 ET (10:33 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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