‘Clear Similarities’ In Lion Air, Ethiopian Flight Profiles

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Ethiopia’s transport minister told reporters on Sunday that preliminary data from Ethiopian Flight 302’s flight data recorder showed “clear similarities” to data pulled from a similar Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 that crashed off Indonesia last October. Dagmawit Moges said the FDR, which appeared significantly damaged from the Ethiopian crash, is actually relatively intact. “The black box has been found in a good condition that enabled us to extract almost all the data inside,” she told reporters Sunday evening. The FDR is being analyzed by the BEA, France’s aviation authority, and Moges said Ethiopia will release its full findings within a month.

The Lion Air investigation is focused on faulty data supplied by an angle of attack sensor to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System that is supposed to protect against high-speed stalls by adjusting the angle of the horizontal stabilizer. The Lion Air plane pitched up and down about two dozen times before diving into the ocean. Early flight tracking data suggested the Ethiopian aircraft’s flightpath was similar to that of the earlier crash plane. The new Boeing is grounded worldwide pending a fix from Boeing that is anticipated in the coming week.

Meanwhile, the impact forces in last Sunday’s crash were so severe that officials say it will be six months before victims’ remains can be properly identified and turned over to relatives. In the meantime, families are being given a one-kilogram box of charred dirt from the crater created by the plummeting airliner. There were 157 people from 35 countries aboard the plane. Many were on their way from Addis Ababa to Nairobi for a U.N. climate change conference.

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