The plane was the Boeing 737 Max 8, the same model that crashed 5 months ago in Indonesia. The safety of the plane is questioned as it is the second plane that crashed from the Boeing 737 range.
The Lion Air Flight 610 crashed after take-off from Jakarta. The pilots had an issue controlling the pitch of the plane once it was in the air. It was concluded that the pilots struggled to lift the nose of the plane during the flight. They were flying manually and couldn’t determine the altitude of the plane.
The final cause of the crash wasn’t concluded but the investigators found out that the MCAS sensor was replaced the day before the flight was to take off after issues before the crash.
Boeing and the FAA found out that the plane’s MCAS system activated the anti-stall system and overruled the manual system of the pilots, therefore pointing the nose of the plane downwards.
The Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 took off from Addis Ababa in Kenya, Sunday morning, heading for Nairobi in Kenya. Once the flight was in the air, the flights vertical speed was not functioning well. The pilot sent out a distress signal and was allowed to go back to the airport, traffic controllers couldn’t contact the flight. This lead to the deadly crash of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight.
The plane went down approximately 57 km outside of Addis Ababa, killing the 147 passengers and crew members. The investigation is still on-going.
The similarity between the Lion Air Flight 610 and the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 was that both the planes crashed after a few minutes of take-off.
by Alexandra Ramaite
