Remembering Ethiopian 302

On the 10th of March 2019, an Ethiopian MAX 8 aircraft crashed near the town of Bishoftu six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people aboard. There were one hundred and forty-nine passengers and eight crew.

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Addis Ababa-Bole Airport (ADD/HAAB), Ethiopia to Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO/HKJK), Kenya

• One minute into the flight, the first officer, acting on the instructions of the captain, reported a "flight control" problem to the control tower.

• Two minutes into the flight, the plane's MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) activated, pitching the plane into a dive toward the ground. The pilots struggled to control it and managed to prevent the nose from diving further, but the plane continued to lose altitude.

• Three minutes into the flight, with the aircraft continuing to lose altitude and accelerating beyond its safety limits, the captain instructed the first officer to request permission from air traffic control to return to the airport. Permission was granted, and the air traffic controllers diverted other approaching flights. Following instructions from air traffic control, they turned the aircraft to the east, and it rolled to the right. The right wing came to point down as the turn steepened.

• Five minutes into the flight, the pilots struggled to keep the plane's nose from diving further by manually pulling the yoke, the captain asked the first officer to help him, and turned the electrical trim tab system back on in the hope that it would allow him to put the stabilizer back into neutral trim. However, in turning the trim system back on, he also reactivated the MCAS system, which pushed the nose further down. The captain and first officer attempted to raise the nose by manually pulling their yokes, but the aircraft continued to plunge toward the ground.

• Six minutes later the aircraft disappeared from radar screens and crashed at 08:44.

This was the second MAX 8 accident in less than five months after the crash of Lion Air Flight 610 on the 29th of October 2018. Both crashes prompted a two-year worldwide long-term grounding of the jet and an investigation into how the aircraft was approved to service.

Aircraft Information:
Airline: Ethiopian Airlines

Code: ET/ETH
Aircraft: Boeing 737 Max 8

Registration: ET-AVJ

Serial Number: 62450

First Flew: 30/10/2018

Age: 4 Months

Engines: 2 x CFMI LEAP-1B