Ethiopia crash mystery deepens: Pilots initiated Boeing protocol

New details in the probe into the Ethiopian 737 jetliner crash that indicate the pilots disabled a safety system driving down the nose -- yet still crashed -- only deepen the mystery of what happened, say pilots and former investigators. The flight crew on the Ethiopian Airlines aircraft followed at least part of a protocol set by planemaker Boeing to manually disable an automated anti-stall system as they tried to save the 737 Max jet, a person familiar with the situation said as Ethiopian authorities prepare to release a preliminary report on the accident Thursday. However, the pilots didn’t perform another critical part of the checklist, said another person familiar with results of the Ethiopian investigation. Before cutting power to a motor operated by the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, they failed to adjust the plane so it wasn’t set to dive. That made it more difficult to fly the plane and may have hastened the fatal plunge that occurred later in the flight, said the person. The pilots later switched power back on to the so-called trim motor. That runs counter to the warning Boeing and the US FAA issued last November after the first crash of a 737 Max aircraft in Indonesia. The FAA’s emergency directive says switches controlling power to the trim system should be set to “CUTOUT and stay in the CUTOUT position for the remainder of the flight.” MCAS engaged numerous times during the short flight, one of the people said. Boeing recommended against jumping to conclusions before the Ethiopian report is published. “We urge caution against speculating and drawing conclusions on the findings prior to the release of the flight data and the preliminary report,” the company said in a statement Wednesday.<br/>