Minutes after take-off, the pilots of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX were caught in a bad situation. A key sensor had been wrecked, possibly by a bird strike. As soon as they retracted the landing gear, flaps and slats, it began to feed faulty data into the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), designed to prevent stalls. Flying faster than recommended, the crew struggled with MCAS. But the high speed made it nearly impossible to use the controls to pull the nose up. Moments later, the Boeing jet hit the ground, killing all 157 people onboard after six minutes of flight. Ethiopian authorities said on Thursday that the pilots followed all the correct procedures in trying to keep MCAS from sending the plane into a fatal dive. But the full picture of what happened in the cockpit of Flight 302 on March 10 is emerging from a preliminary report and a newly released data plot showing how crew and technology interacted. The airline’s youngest-ever captain, a 29-year-old with an impressive 8,100 hours flying time, and his rookie 25-year-old co-pilot may have made a crucial mistake by leaving the engines at full take-off power, according to data and other pilots. By the end, the aircraft was traveling at 500 knots (575 mph, 926 kph), far beyond its design limits. That and some other potential missteps may have left them unable to fight flawed Boeing software that eventually sent the jet into an uncontrollable dive, experts said after studying the data. “Power being left in take-off power while levelling off at that speed is not a normal procedure,” said one US pilot. Story has full details.<br/>
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Ethiopian authorities would be prepared to release a more detailed set of findings on the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max jet that killed 157 people if the investigation drags on beyond the year-long target for the probe. “It depends on the complexity of the investigation,” said Amdye Andualem, chairman of the Ethiopian Accident Investigation Bureau, on Saturday. “If we cannot release the final report within a year, we can release an interim report,” he said, citing International Civil Aviation Organization guidelines. “These are the next steps.”Before the final report’s planned release, a draft will be provided to Boeing and “concerned bodies” for comment, Amdye said. He declined to give a timeline for this part of the process, or detail the parameters of further investigative work for the final document. Pilots commanding the doomed airliner were hit with a cascade of malfunctions and alarms seconds after the jet took off from the Ethiopian capital on March 10, according to a preliminary report released on April 4. Critically, the plane’s automatic anti-stall system that was also linked to a previous 737 Max crash months earlier began pushing the nose of the jetliner down less than two minutes into the flight due to a malfunctioning sensor. Physical evidence from the crash site remains guarded by police at Ethiopian Airlines’ maintenance department, under the control of the Accident Investigation Bureau. The airline’s staff have no access to it, CEO Tewolde GebreMariam said this week.<br/>
Ethiopian Airlines is reconsidering its order for 25 additional 737 Max jetliners from Boeing, in part because of the “stigma" surrounding the aircraft involved in two fatal air disasters in five months -- one of them an Ethiopian Airlines flight. “We may reach the decision: Look, we just had a very tragic accident a few weeks ago, and customers still have the accident in their mind. So it will be a hard sell for us to convince our customers,’’ CE Tewolde GebreMariam said. Ethiopian won’t take delivery of its remaining 25 ordered 737 Max aircraft right now – or perhaps at all, Tewolde said. A decision on the 737 Max purchases will come after Boeing offers a software fix to a system implicated in both crashes and seeing what regulators and other airlines do, he said. “Our situation is quite different from the others, because we are the victim," Tewolde said. “You can imagine the stigma that will be attached with the airplane.” He said the airline will need to convince pilots and customers before resuming use of the aircraft. Ethiopian has ordered 30 of the 737 Max jets and taken delivery of five, including the jetliner that crashed soon after taking off from Addis Ababa, Tewolde said. The plane, Boeing’s best seller, is grounded worldwide. GebreMariam said the airline will listen to aviation regulators around the world, in addition to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, as it considers resuming 737 Max flights. “We are part of the global airline community, waiting for the fix, and waiting for the fix to be certified by FAA and also the other regulators” including those in Europe, China and Canada, GebreMariam said. Story has more background.<br/>
Indonesia will send two investigators to Ethiopia to assist in a probe and exchange data on two fatal crashes of Boeing 737 MAX jets since October, the head of the country's air safety agency said Friday. Boeing's top-selling airplane has been grounded worldwide since a March 10 disaster in Ethiopia killed 157 people, five months after a Lion Air 737 MAX crashed in Indonesia, killing 189 people on board. Indonesian investigators will travel to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on April 15, said Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of the National Transportation Safety Committee. "They will help in assisting Ethiopia. We will study the data to assess whether there are similarities or whether there is any new information from the accident," Tjahjono said. Tjahjono said it was too early to draw any conclusions from the Ethiopian report or determine any links between the crashes because it contained factual data without analysis. "We have already observed some similarities...but we cannot determine them exactly until after our investigators go to Ethiopia when we will conduct a joint investigation," he said. The two Indonesian investigators would sign an agreement on their role under an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) protocol, he said.<br/>
A federal judge in Manhattan on Friday rejected Expedia's request for an injunction that would have required United to continue providing fare data for flights after Sept. 30, when the companies' contract ends. US District Judge Kevin Castel said Expedia had shown a "likelihood of success" on the merits of its breach of contract claim, but did not show a preliminary injunction was needed to avoid irreparable harm or serve the public interest. An injunction would have required United to provide Expedia with fare and schedule information for all its publicly available flights, including those after Sept. 30. "We welcome the ruling from the judge in favor of United which will minimize the risk of disrupting our customers’ travel plans and ensure we can effectively serve customers who need to make changes to their itineraries purchased through Expedia," United said. Expedia did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The dispute came as some carriers try to reduce distribution costs by encouraging travellers to book directly rather than through online travel agencies such as Expedia.<br/>
United Continental will stop publishing charts showing the miles needed to obtain tickets through its frequent flyer program, allowing for a wider -- and more expensive -- range of prices. The move follows a similar decision by rival Delta in 2014 to scrap fixed tables in favor of dynamically pricing award tickets. The change allows a carrier to maximize revenue during peak travel periods. Southwest has adopted a similar approach for award travel. “Customers who can be flexible with their travel day and/or time will benefit significantly from this move to lower prices,” United said Friday. “For the busiest travel times of the year when demand is highest, there may be higher award prices than what people see today. United also said it will scrap booking fees of $25 to $75 for award tickets obtained less than 21 days before flight. The fees had varied based on the member’s elite status within the program, known as MileagePlus. The airline said it won’t increase any award prices before Nov. 15 and will begin depositing miles accrued from travel immediately in travellers’ accounts, down from the previous 48 hours after a flight. <br/>
Creditors led by hedge fund Elliott Management approved on Friday a restructuring plan for bankrupt airline Avianca Brasil, hours after the country’s antitrust regulator announced preemptively that the plan could run afoul of competition laws. The regulator, known as CADE, said on Friday morning that it could block the plan, which Avianca Brasil hopes could raise some $210m. The carrier filed for bankruptcy protection in December. CADE’s warning means the creditor approval may not bring short term relief to Avianca Brasil given that the regulator itself said its review of the deal could last some eight months. During that time, the cash-strapped carrier would have to operate with its own funds, or take on additional debt. The plan was modified on Friday evening during a creditors’ meeting, although the new details were not immediately available. Under Avianca Brasil’s plan filed this week, Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA and LATAM Airlines Group would buy Avianca Brasil’s airport rights, known as slots, in three high-traffic terminals. That plan would raise much-needed funds but is high-risk, lawyers said, because the carrier could be left hanging for a long time without access to new cash injections. If Avianca Brasil fails as a business before receiving CADE approval, then it will be too late and there will be no airport slots to sell.<br/>