The US NTSB has faulted Ethiopia's final report into the March 2019 Boeing 737 MAX fatal jetliner crash and said that country's investigators did not adequately address performance of the flight crew. NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said in an interview on Tuesday that Ethiopia's Aircraft Investigation Bureau (EAIB) had made errors in its report. "We feel what they did not do is really delve into the flight crew performance issues and whether they were adequately prepared," Homendy said. "We felt like it was not as comprehensive and robust as it could have been." The MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia, which cost Boeing more than $20 billion, led to a 20-month grounding for the best-selling plane that was lifted by regulators after Boeing made software and pilot training changes. Boeing declined to comment Tuesday. The NTSB was not given a chance to review or comment on Ethiopia's final report before it was made public last month, a violation of rules overseen by the United Nations’ Montreal-based aviation agency, ICAO, Homendy said. "It's unprecedented -- under ICAO we get a right to review the report and to provide comment," Homendy said. The NTSB comments released in December were in response to an earlier draft the board reviewed. The NTSB said earlier Ethiopian inspectors investigating the cause of the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines' crash that killed 157 people did not pay enough attention to crew training and emergency procedures in their report.<br/>
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Lufthansa Group carrier Swiss has started flying Airbus A340-300s fitted with premium-economy seating. Swiss is retrofitting all four of its A340s with the seats, the first of which commenced services with the new configuration on 24 January with a Zurich-Johannesburg flight. The airline says the A340s will all be reconfigured by April.<br/>Swiss began installing the premium-economy cabin in December. The airline will offer the seats on routes including Hong Kong and Chicago. The carrier has already refitted its Boeing 777-300ERs with premium-economy, which features a pitch of nearly 1m and seat width of 48cm. CCO Tamur Goudarzi Pour says the airline has received “highly-positive feedback” from passengers over the increased comfort and enhance service, and adds that it has become a “hugely popular” travel option. Swiss finished an A340 cabin refit a couple of years ago, intended to bring the type’s interior into line with that of its 777s. The A340 layout comprised 223 seats, including eight in first-class, 47 in business-class and 168 in the economy cabin.<br/>
Air India said it has adjusted its in-flight alcohol service policy in the wake of a mid-air urination scandal that has cost the carrier over $40,000 in fines. The incident, in which a drunk senior US bank executive was accused of urinating on a 72-year-old woman seated in business class on a flight last year from New York to New Delhi, has been dubbed "peegate" by local media. The airline has faced severe criticism for its handling of the woman's complaint and for allowing the banker, Indian national Shankar Mishra, to disembark as normal when the aircraft landed. But Air India defended itself in a statement on Tuesday, saying "in the judgement of the crew, the alleged perpetrator posed no risk to flight safety at any time". "The alleged perpetrator was calm, co-operative and professed ignorance of the allegation. He had not been served excessive alcohol by crew and did not appear intoxicated to the crew," the statement added. The airline did acknowledge, however, its failure to report the incident, which took place on November 26, as required by the Indian aviation regulator.<br/>