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The identification of human remains from the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 is complete, the head of Ethiopia’s police said late Monday, six months after the plane nosedived into farmland outside the capital Addis Ababa. The investigation was “very challenging”, said Endeshaw Tassew, commissioner general of the Ethiopian Federal Police, in a statement broadcast on state television. The Boeing 737-MAX slammed into the ground with such force that only fragments of those who died could be recovered. Families heard the news that identification had been completed through the media. “Families were devastated because of this. Almost all the old people, they took it very seriously. They are still in shock,” said Bayihe Demissie, who works with a committee formed by the families of Ethiopian victims. “It took them back to all that pain. They (the airline) should have told us before they did anything. There should be a mechanism to discuss with families. All we need is for them to be gentle with us.” Collecting and identifying the remains has been a fraught process. Families of those who perished complained of a lack of information about recovery efforts during which Ethiopian workers used metal aircraft parts to dig in the soil. After initial sampling of the remains was done in Ethiopia, they were transferred to a laboratory run by UK-based Cellmark Forensic Services, which was contracted by the government, Endeshaw said. Experts from another UK-based company, Blake Emergency Services, and from Interpol and the Ethiopian police were involved in preparing DNA samples and fingerprints.<br/>

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao had an emotional first meeting Tuesday in her Washington offices with family members of Boeing 737 Max crash victims. The meeting came six months to the day after the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which followed the Lion Air Flight 610 tragedy last October. Together, the crashes killed 346 people. Eleven families met with the head of the agency that oversees the FAA, which will ultimately determine if and when the 737 Max commercial jet will fly again. The gathering, intended to last 45 minutes, stretched to more than two hours and was described as emotionally heavy. Family members were in tears as they talked about their loved ones, according to Michael Stumo, whose daughter Samya was killed in the Ethiopian crash. Stumo said there was emotion "on both sides. The secretary and her staff became emotional, and at one point we had to call for a second box of tissues." The families came to the meeting with several demands, including a commitment from the transportation secretary not to fast-track approving the plane to fly again. The families said that while Chao vowed the plane would not fly again until they were certain it was safe, she did not commit to allowing all the investigations to play out first. But she said three probes will likely be completed prior to the FAA declaring the aircraft safe for flight, according to Stumo and a spokesman for Chao: the Joint Authorities Technical Review, which includes the US and other international regulators assessing the FAA's processes; the Technical Advisory Board, composed of aviation experts from the US government and military, which is reviewing Boeing's proposed Max fixes; and a blue ribbon commission convened by Chao to review the way the FAA certifies aircraft. A criminal probe by the Justice Department and a review by the Transportation Department inspector general also are underway.<br/>

Austrian Airlines has been trialing the use of drone technology to inspect paint and structural damage on its fleet of 36 Airbus A320 family aircraft. The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, were developed by Toulouse-based manufacturer Donecle, and will be tested through year-end. Drones can complete autonomous checks in less than 2 hours, instead of 4-10 hours by technicians performing manual inspections. “Shorter duration of the checks … enables quicker availability of the aircraft in daily flight operations,” Austrian Airlines CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said. Under the supervision of an aircraft technician, the drone inspects the aircraft exterior using state-of-the-art, patented laser technology. The drone—which flies autonomously to inspect all areas of the aircraft—takes a high-resolution image every second. On the basis of these images, the accompanying software automatically identifies damage to the structure and paintwork, such as missing aircraft labels. The technician then examines the damage in detail on a tablet and makes a final decision on the repair. “From September, our 17 Embraer E195 fleet will also be checked by the new technology,” von Hoensbroech said.<br/>

Lufthansa is to open a new transatlantic connection to Canada, with services to the capital Ottawa. It is to operate to the city from its Frankfurt base from 16 May next year. Lufthansa says it will operate Airbus A340-300s on the route, configured with 279 seats in three classes including a premium-economy cabin. The airline already operates to three Canadian cities – Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. It will fly five-times weekly on the new Ottawa route. Air Canada already operates the service from Ottawa to Frankfurt, and also connects the Canadian capital to London Heathrow.<br/>