ADDIS ABABA/PARIS (Reuters) - Investigators probing the Boeing 737 MAX crash in Ethiopia have found similarities in direction data with an aeroplane that came down off Indonesia, a source said, heightening pressure on the world’s biggest planemaker.
The Ethiopian Airlines disaster killed 157 people eight days ago and has since grounded Boeing’s marquee MAX fleet worldwide, and sparked a high-stakes inquiry for the aviation industry.
Analysis of the doomed aircraft’s cockpit recorder showed its so-called “angle of attack” was “very, very similar” to the Lion Air jet that came down off Jakarta in October, killing 189 people, a person familiar with the investigation said.
The angle of attack measures the angle between the air flow and the wing and is fundamental to flight. A flight deck computer’s response to an apparently faulty angle of attack sensor is at the heart of a probe into the Lion Air crash.
Ethiopian Airlines - whose reputation like Boeing’s is in the balance - and France’s BEA air accident authority both also said initial analysis of the black boxes showed “clear similarities” between the twin disasters.
Both planes were MAX 8s and crashed minutes after take-off with pilots reporting flight control problems.
Under scrutiny is a new automated system in the MAX model that guides the nose lower to avoid stalling.
Lawmakers and safety experts are asking how thoroughly regulators vetted the system and how well pilots around the world were trained for it when their airlines bought new planes.
BOEING PLANS NEW SOFTWARE
U.S. officials have not commented on the investigation specifics, but Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) acting boss Daniel
