Similarities in early data from the recent airplane wrecks in Ethiopia and Indonesia have sparked concerns about Boeing’s 737 Max 8.
After a Boeing 737 Max 8 plane wrecked in Ethiopia on Sunday, it didn’t take long for reporters and aviation watchdogs to note similarities between Ethiopian flight ET302 and the Lion Air flight that crashed shortly after departing from Jakarta in October. Both flights showed dramatic fluctuations in their vertical speed, almost immediately after takeoff.
Aviation journalists at FlightRadar24 and aviation engineers who have looked at the preliminary crash report from the Lion Airlines flight have noted a battle between the 737 Max 8’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) — its anti-stall system — and the Lion Air pilots. The system is able to override the pilots and pitch the plane’s nose down when it detects the potential for a stall. A faulty Angle of Attack sensor, misjudging the plane’s angle, could, therefore, order the MCAS to pitch the nose down, while the pilots tried forcing the plan to climb, manually.
