Pilots fought against Artificial Intelligence and lost – Ethiopian Airlines crash report

Pilots flying Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 repeatedly performed all the procedures provided by the manufacturer, but were not able to control the aircraft before it crashed, killing all 157 people aboard, Ethiopian Transportation Ministry officials said Thursday.

The findings, part of preliminary report on the tragedy released by the Ethiopian Transport Ministry, are likely to place significant pressure on airplane manufacturer Boeing.

The report says the Boeing 737 Max 8 had normal certification and the crew was certified for flying this aircraft and had the necessary training, officials said.

Ethiopian authorities recommended that Boeing review the jet’s MCAS anti-stall system and that aviation regulators ensure that the issue has been dealt with before authorizing any further flights of the plane.

The new 737 Max 8 jet crashed shortly after takeoff from the Ethiopian capital on March 10.

The release of the report is expected to offer details from the Ethiopian jet’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorders, which were recovered from the crash site and taken to Paris for analysis.

The disaster was the second such crash of a Max 8 jet in less than six months and prompted the worldwide grounding of all Boeing 737 Max jets currently in service.

In October, all 189 people on board Lion Air Flight 610 were killed when the flight went down shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 aboard.

Similarities between the two crashes have pointed suspicion toward the plane’s newly designed automated anti-stall software, called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), and sparked US investigations into the certification process at Boeing.

Fallout from the tragedies has also disrupted the air travel industry. Air travelers have been forced to reschedule canceled flights and airlines are losing money while their new planes remain parked on the ground until further notice.

What is MCAS and why is it important?

The design of the 737 Max is based on a previous version of the 737 — with the addition of newly designed engines.

These engines are more fuel efficient than previous 737s, but they’re larger, which changed the aerodynamics of the overall aircraft, giving the jet a tendency to point slightly upward.

The MCAS system is intended to compensate for this by overriding the pilot and forcing the plane’s nose down, if data from an “angle of attack” (AOA) — sensor indicates the jet’s nose is too high.

If the nose is pointing too high the aircraft is in danger of stalling and possibly crashing.

Following the Lion Air crash last October, Boeing issued an Operations Manual Bulletin advising airlines how to deal with “erroneous input from an AOA sensor.”

Boeing is currently developing a software fix for MCAS that it says will add inputs from a second AOA sensor and an indicator light that will alert pilots when something is wrong.

Although Boeing is developing a fix to its MCAS software, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has expressed confidence in MCAS.

Boeing said last week it was working with airlines and regulators to “restore faith in our industry” and “to reaffirm our commitment to safety and to earning the trust of the flying public.”

Typically, a preliminary report from air crash investigators doesn’t seek to find fault. Its purpose is to offer an early glimpse of what happened — without providing any conclusions to a possible cause. A final investigation report typically isn’t expected until up to a year after the crash.

Worldwide grounding

The FAA grounded all 737 Max 8s and Max 9s in the US on March 13, after aviation regulators in other nations around the world had already done the same. The FAA grounded the jets citing satellite tracking data that showed similarities between the Lion Air and Ethiopian crashes.

The world’s largest carrier, American Airlines, which owns 24 737 Max 8s, said it plans to cancel about 90 flights per day through April 24 due to the grounding.

Europe’s largest tour company — Germany’s TUI — said it expects the grounding will cost it at least $225 million. TUI has 15 737 Max jets, and was expecting another eight to be delivered by the end of May.

China, the first country to ground the Max 8, has one of the world’s largest fleets, with 97 Max 8s in operation, according to Chinese state-run media.