The Ethiopian Airlines chief executive, Tewolde GebreMariam, said routine maintenance had revealed no problems with the plane, and the captain Yared Getachew had flown more than 8,000 hours with an “excellent flying record”. Questions have been raised about the safety of the Boeing 737 Max 8, which has been in commercial operation since 2016. The Ethiopian prime minister’s office sent condolences via Twitter to the families of those lost in the crash. The plane was swerving erratically before the crash.”The cause of the earlier crash involving a Boeing 737 Max 8 in Indonesia is still under investigation. Its last major crash was in January 2010, when a flight from Beirut went down shortly after takeoff.

Source: The Guardian March 10, 2019 08:52 UTC