Updated
Boeing’s newest version of its most popular plane is again in the spotlight after another deadly crash minutes after take-off.
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed after leaving Addis Ababa on Sunday en route to Nairobi, the capital of neighbouring Kenya, killing all 157 people on board.
Here’s what we know:
It’s the same model as in the Lion Air crash
The accident is strikingly similar to last October’s Lion Air crash off Indonesia.
Both planes were new Boeing 737 MAX 8 models, the newest version of the single-aisle, narrow-body aircraft, and both crashed just minutes after take-off.
The Lion Air plane plunged into the Java Sea, killing 189 people.
The preliminary report in the Lion Air crash found the pilots struggled to control the plane as an automatic safety system designed to prevent stalling repeatedly pushed the plane’s nose down.
Pilots had to manually raise the nose to correct the flight, only for the sequence to repeat about five seconds later.
This happened 26 times, but the pilot failed to realise what was happening.
Investigators believed faulty information from sensors could have activated the system.
In the wake of the crash, US pilots who were trained to fly the same model said Boeing had not told them about the new anti-stall system in training documents.
Pilots said Boeing issued a safety bulletin after the crash that included new details on how to disable the system.
Boeing first gave the 737 MAX model a test flight in 2016 and it entered service with airlines in 2017.
It is the latest iteration of the world’s most popular jetliner.
Was the anti-stall system at fault here?
We don’t know.
The jet showed an unstable vertical speed after take-off, air traffic monitor Flightradar24 said, and the senior Ethiopian pilot sent out a distress call.
The plane was given clearance to return to the airport but crashed six minutes after departing, ploughing into the ground at Hejere near Bishoftu/Debre Zeit, about 50 kilometres south of Addis Ababa, at 8:44am (local time).
The weather was clear at the time of the crash.
Safety experts are cautioning against drawing too many comparisons between the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes until more is known about Sunday’s disaster.
But William Waldock, an aviation safety professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said suspicion would be raised because the same type of plane appeared to crash the same way — a fatal nosedive that left wreckage in tiny pieces.
“Investigators are not big believers in coincidence,” he said.
Mr Waldock said Boeing would look more closely at the flight management system and automation on the MAX.
But he noted it was very early, and more would be known after investigators found and analysed the Ethiopian plane’s black boxes.
Alan Diehl, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said the similarities included both crews encountering a problem shortly after take-off, and reports of large variations in vertical speed during ascent, “clearly suggesting a potential controllability problem” with the Ethiopian jetliner.
But there are many possible explanations, Mr Diehl said, including engine problems, pilot error, weight load, sabotage or bird strikes.
He said Ethiopian Airlines had a good reputation, but investigators would look into the plane’s maintenance, especially since that may have been an issue in the Lion Air investigation.
The Ethiopian plane was new and had been delivered to the airline in November.
Its last maintenance was on February 4, and it had flown just 1,200 hours.
Do Australian airlines use the 737 MAX?
Not yet, but Virgin Australia has ordered 30 of the planes.
The first of those are due to start flying at the end of the year, a Virgin Australia spokesman said.
Ethiopian Airlines had also ordered 30 of the planes and five were in operation before the fatal crash.
Around the world, just under 350 737 MAXs have been delivered by Boeing, as of January.
Boeing says its plane is safe. The company’s sales didn’t suffer after the Indonesia crash, and its stock price has soared.
AP/ABC
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