Preliminary findings from officials investigating the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 crash suggest that a flight-control feature automatically activated before the plane nose-dived into the ground, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal. Earlier this month, the Federal Aviation Administration agency grounded all Boeing 737 Max planes, saying it had identified similarities between the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the Lion Air crash in Indonesia six months earlier. Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea in Indonesia on October 29 after taking off from Jakarta. According to Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde GebreMariam, pilots transitioning to the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft from older 737 models were required only to undertake a short computer-based training program prescribed by Boeing and approved by the FAA. On Wednesday, Boeing unveiled an overhaul to the software system and the pilot training of its 737 MAX plane.

Source: Ethiopian News March 29, 2019 10:07 UTC