THE 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft, which killed 157 people, was caused by a faulty safety feature, Xinhua reported, quoting Ethiopian authorities in its final report on Friday.

On March 10, 2019, the aircraft flying from Addis Ababa to Nairobi crashed minutes after takeoff, killing all the passengers and crew on board.

A final report on the crash concluded nothing was wrong before takeoff and that the crash was due to a safety feature failure, said Ethiopian transport and logistics minister Dagmawit Moges.

“The airplane’s left angle of attack (AOA) sensor failed immediately after takeoff, sending faulty data to the flight control system. The erroneous data in turn triggered the manoeuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS), which repeatedly pitched the nose of the plane down to the point the pilots lost control,” Moges was quoted as saying by the state-run Ethiopian News Agency.

The AOA sensors on the aircraft tell the MCAS to automatically point the nose of the plane down if it is in danger of going into a stall. It was learned that the MCAS is an automated safety feature on the 737 Max 8 designed to prevent the plane from entering into a stall or losing lift.

Moges noted that the final report was built on preliminary and interim reports that had been released.

The incident prompted Ethiopia’s flag carrier, along with many other airlines worldwide, to ground the Boeing 737 MAX jets. – Bernama, December 25, 2022.