Families of victims of the deadly 2019 Ethiopian Airlines jet crash may obtain as soon as Thursday Boeing’s reports to US regulators that helped keep its 737 MAX flying after a prior disaster with the same jet in Indonesia five months earlier. The NTSB, an independent US government investigative agency, told Boeing in a letter on Monday it should turn over nearly 2,000 documents to lawyers representing families who want to determine what the company knew about its flight systems after the Indonesian crash on Lion Air. The agency said international rules mandate the release of the documents after two years from the crash date, even though Ethiopia has yet to produce a final crash report which the agency cited in blocking the documents until now, according to the letter. Boeing said it plans to produce the investigation-related information to the plaintiffs beginning Friday following the NTSB guidance that, at the second anniversary of the Ethiopian accident, the restrictions would be lifted.<br/>
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Ethiopia’s aircraft accident investigation bureau says its inquiry into the fatal Boeing 737 Max 8 crash near Addis Ababa is in its final stages. The accident involving Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 occurred two years ago, on 10 March 2019, five months after a similar loss in Indonesia – prompting civil aviation regulators to ground the 737 Max in response. Preliminary findings from the inquiry into the Ethiopian accident have indicated that, like the Indonesian event, the crew was unable to restore control of the jet after faulty angle-of-attack information caused the flight-control system to trim the stabiliser increasingly nose-down. The investigation bureau, in a second-anniversary update to progress, says it is “in the final stage to release the report”. It points out that the pandemic and the resulting national lockdowns have had a “serious impact” on the work into the cause of the ET302 accident.<br/>
With its purchase by Air Canada in jeopardy, tour operator Transat said it’s exploring a government emergency loan that could come as early as this month.Transat said Thursday that it’s looking for at least C$500m (US$398m) in long-term financing to cover its needs in case the transaction, which is still under EU review, falls through. One of the options is the government’s Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility, known as LEEFF, which has been used by only one airline as the industry negotiates for a bailout program including cheaper loans. A LEEFF agreement has been in the cards for a long time, but “now we’re pushing faster,” CEO Jean-Marc Eustache said. “And they are working with us faster, to be sure that we’re going have the cash necessary to continue the organization if the deal doesn’t go through.” The company is also in talks with other parties, including Quebec’s investment arm, he said.<br/>
Human-influenced climate change is the “defining issue for our generation to solve”, in the view of United CE Scott Kirby, who says his passion for the subject is behind the carrier’s attempt to become an industry leader on sustainability. Kirby explained that since becoming chief executive of one of the world’s largest airlines last year, he has “a platform and position where I can make a difference”, alongside the ability to influence “how people feel about aviation” as concern about the sector’s environmental footprint grows. And in the months since taking over at United, Kirby has made clear his view that genuinely reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is the only way for aviation to meaningfully contribute towards humanity avoiding the most “dramatic” effects of climate change. He is therefore dismissive of carbon offsetting – “which is basically just planting trees” – describing it as a “fig leaf for a CEO to check a box, pretend that they’ve done the right thing for sustainability, when they haven’t made one whit of difference in the real world”.<br/>
There are no longer any restrictions to travel in New Zealand after Auckland joined the rest of the country at alert level 1 at midday on Friday. PM Jacinda Ardern announced the decision to move down levels at 11.30am, after it was confirmed there were no new community cases overnight. The only remaining requirement for travel under level 1 is that face coverings must still be worn on public transport and domestic flights, in all parts of the country. Air New Zealand said its full food and beverage service would be back on board from Monday. The decision to bring back the service was made under guidance from the Ministry of Health, the airline said. Customers would still be required to wear a face covering when not eating or drinking.<br/>