Ethiopia’s transport minister announced on Friday (December 23) that state investigators in their final report on ET302 confirm that a software malfunction was the main cause of the March 10, 2019 Boeing 737 Max crash.
The Ethiopian Airlines flight bound for Nairobi crashed six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 passengers and crew.
Consistent with the preliminary report, the final report confirmed that the angle-of-attack sensor on the left side of the aircraft failed immediately after takeoff, sending erroneous data to the flight control system, said Dagmawit Moges.
The erroneous data triggered the maneuvering characteristics augmentation flight control system (MCAS), which repeatedly pointed the plane’s nose down until the pilots lost control of the plane, she said.
The report into the Ethiopian Airlines Group incident also concluded that all professionals and planes related to the crash were correctly certified.
The final report should be public in the coming days.
