Crashed Ethiopian plane was unsafe – DeFazio

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 03:00 pm

The Boeing 737 plane that crashed in Ethiopia late last year was not safe and unworthy for take off, an investigation by the US House of Representatives says.

The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on Saturday released a preliminary report of its findings, showing that although the commercial aircraft was compliant with federal aviation authority regulations, its systems were “fundamentally flawed and unsafe.”

The first crash happened in 2018 involving a Lion Air flight 610 from Jakatta in Indonesia. It crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 passengers and crew.

The second crash involved the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019 from Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport to JKIA in Nairobi. It crashed six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people aboard.

Thirty-two of the victims were Kenyans. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.

“The committee’s investigation has identified several instances where the desire to meet these goals and expectations jeopardised the safety of the flying public,” the report says.

Chairman of the committee Peter DeFazio said the panel’s probe was ongoing in the foreseeable future and that the much they have done “…has been able to bring into focus the multiple factors that allowed an unairworthy airplane to be put into service, leading to the tragic and avoidable deaths of 346 people.”