What a terrible accident that shook the world last Sunday morning! It has been a horrible shock and dismay to hear the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines plane. Ethiopians have been deeply saddened for all the lives lost in that tragedy.
Our hearts go to the deceased and to their families. The dreadful accident happened while the Boeing 737 MAX bound for Nairobi crashed around Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, about six minutes after takeoff from Bole International Airport, killing all 157 people on board.
The Ethiopian Airlines has developed unshakable reputation in its safety records that would have a lasting impact for years to come. For several decades, it has become the most trusted airlines. It isn’t only the most successful and profitable African airline but also one of the safest and most reliable modern fleet in the world.
It is also the largest in Africa in terms of fleet size and destinations it serves. As CNN anchor Richard Quest who specializes in aviation observed, “Ethiopian Airlines is a very, very well-run airline. There is no safety issue on Ethiopian. They’ve made it their business to be the African airline that operates like a western airline.” The Ethiopian Airlines is reputed for establishing long-standing trustworthy services which has helped it to preserve its status in the airline industry competition.
Apart from the Dreamliner, it operates the new generation Airbus A350 as well as the Boeing 777 that made it one of the best airlines with the excellent safety record in Africa. Safety has a paramount importance in the airline history.
Its leadership allows no room for mistakes. As the airlines’ Group CEO, Tewolde Gebermariam stated that the airline takes supreme precaution in recruiting and training pilots. It consistently provides medical and skills tests for them.
Concerning the investigation of the incident, Boeing has already announced that its technical team would be travelling to the crash site to provide technical assistance under the direction of the Ethiopian Accident Investigation Bureau and U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. Some evidences indicate that the same Boeing 737 Max 8 model that was involved in a crash in Indonesia about six months ago had similar experiences.
According to some media outlets the preliminary investigation into the Indonesia crash focused on a malfunctioning sensor and computer system that pushed down the plane’s nose. Likewise, last Sunday’s crash appears to demonstrate a similar irregular flight path, with the plane first ascending, then descending, then ascending sharply before it fell from the sky. And the pilot had radioed the air traffic controllers at the Airport and informed that he faced a problem.
The plane came from Johannesburg, South Africa and was inspected at Bole Airport before taking off to Nairobi. The aircraft is new, only four months old since its delivery by the Boeing Company and it has a flight record of 1,200 hours. Captain Yared Getachew, born from Ethiopian and Kenyan parents, has been flying with the Airlines since July 2010 and has a flight time of 8,231 hours.
He became Boeing 737 captain in November 2017. The first officer,
Mohammed Nur Ahmed Nur has also a flight record of more than 200 hours. With all these, it is unlikely to attribute the cause of the accident to the airlines. Nobody can also conclude either way at this time. What is needed right now is a vibrant investigation that would discover the truth. Be that as it may, we are still proud of the Ethiopian Airlines, which has long been reputed for achieving excellent safety records, and pretty much sure that will continue to flourish.
Herald March 12/2019
