Today marks one year since the fatal Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crash. On March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, scheduled to fly from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, crashed six-minutes after takeoff. The crash of the aircraft, near the town of Bishoftu, killed 149 passengers and 8 flight crew on board.
The families of the victims arrived in Ejere, near Bishoftu, today, to remember the first anniversary of the tragic accident. Local community accompanied the families as they arrived in the accident area. ‘Your grievance is ours too,” reads one of the banners hanging near the location.
Prime minister Abiy Ahmed, Tweeted today, “… As friends and family gather in Ethiopia from all over the world to honor the memories of their loved ones, I pay tribute to the victims of this accident and wish their families continued strength.”
The interim report by the Ethiopian Ministry of Transport released on Monday indicates that ‘design failure’ of the aircraft resulted in the accident. The statement added that the Boeing company did not provide sufficient training for MAX 737, and the central flight software was faulty.
The Ethiopian 737 MAX crash last year resulted in arguably the worst crisis in the 104 years history of the Boeing company. The giant airplane manufacturer reported a $636m loss in 2019, as airlines worldwide grounded all 737 MAX aircraft.
The Ethiopian crash was the second of the same aircraft, which followed the Lion Air crash five months earlier. The Indonesian aircraft went down just after a few minutes of takeoff and killed 189 people on board. In both cases, the planes went down uncontrollably. Investigators identified that the anti-stall software installed on the aircraft to counter the overload on the engine had a flaw.
