Ethiopia fast-tracks Boeing 737 MAX crash probe

Ethiopian air accident investigators are taking the unusual step of fast-tracking their probe into last week’s crash of a Boeing 737 MAX airliner amid global safety concerns around the jet and could issue a preliminary report on the accident as early as next week, the head of Ethiopia’s civil-aviation authority said Wednesday. Ethiopia’s transport minister and the French air safety investigation bureau, which downloaded the data from the Ethiopian Airlines plane’s black boxes, have pointed to “clear similarities” between that accident and a Lion Air crash. “It is a big issue for the whole world,” colonel Wosenyeleh Hunegna, Ethiopia’s civil-aviation boss and a member of the committee overseeing the crash investigation, said. A preliminary report, with more data from the plane’s black boxes could be released in a week or 8 days. <br/>