A Boeing 737 MAX 8 of Norwegian Air, flying to Tel Aviv, made an emergency turn-around and is heading toward Stockholm. It hasn't been reported what happened on the plane of the same variant as the plane that crashed in Ethiopia. For now. Meanwhile, more and more countries are grounding these planes. What information is seriously scaring air carriers?
See Alexander Khristenko's report from the United States.
The sky is closed for the newest Boeing 737 MAX 8 by airline companies and entire countries. In addition to Ethiopia, where the catastrophe happened, the airliner has also been grounded by China, Singapore, Australia, Argentine, the UK, Norway, and France. The list is obviously going to expand. The situation is unparalleled in the world of civil aviation. Such frequent and similar accidents involving American airliners haven't happened before. In less than six months, two reliable air carriers, in Indonesia and Ethiopia, faced two Boeings of the same variant crashing in clear weather. Both of them were brand new. Both crashed shortly after take-off... 12 minutes for the Lion Airplane, 6 minutes for the Ethiopian Airlines plane.
- How often does a new plane, a new model, crash out of the sky?
Les Abend, aircraft expert: "Well, they shouldn't crash, let's put it that way. Boeing had some issues with 787 model but they were rectified. This is just unprecedented. This has never happened before".
Both planes showed similar behavior... The plane's nose was going up and down as if someone was struggling to take control of the plane. This is probably exactly what happened, a struggle between a human and an onboard computer. Maybe the pilots were fighting the system that is designed to correct piloting mistakes but it ended up killing people and the plane.
Yuri Sytnik, pilot: "The system automatically, without the pilot's participation, transmits the elevator input to the control actuator via the computer. This drops the nose of the plane. As soon as the plane reaches the pitch angle of 35 degrees it starts to accelerate rapidly. As soon as the speed is greater than 600 knots, the crew can't restore the flight".
After the first crash in Indonesia, Boeing updated the aircraft's software. The company told us they're going to issue another update in the near future. The 737 is the most popular plane in the world. That has proven its reliability. The computer system that could cause the crashes is installed only in the latest MAX versions of the 737. The USA is still operating the plane.
Russia has only two of these planes, both owned by S7 Airlines. Answering our request, the company said that it hasn't received recommendations from Boeing to suspend flights. Even Donald Trump entered the discussion over safety.
"I don't want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane".
Boeing share prices plummeted over the tragic news. According to CNN, the pilots of Ethiopian Airlines managed to convey to the air traffic controllers they had flight control problems.
Richard Quest: "The head of Ethiopian Airlines said the other day that the pilots said that they had technical problems with the flight control system. This is very worrying information because this is exactly what happened with Lion Air".
At the same time, eyewitnesses said they had seen smoke over the plane's tail-end just before the crash. The black box can give the exact cause of the accident. They will be deciphered, but, according to preliminary information, it will be carried out not in America, but in Europe.
Alexander Khristenko, Nikolay Koskin, Vesti, the United States.
