On 10 March 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max crashed shortly after take-off near Ejere, Ethiopia, killing all 157 passengers and crew on board. Even though Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde GebreMariam told us in November 2019 that the national carrier would be “the last airline to fly the 737 Max”, one of its four 737 Maxes took off on 1 February this year. Onboard these 100%-state-owned airlines were company and manufacturer representatives as well as government officials.
Commercial flights are due to resume soon – it was announced for 1 March – but no such aircraft has been on the airline’s flight plans for the past 10 days. We reached out to Ethiopian officials to enquire about the delay, but they did not respond.
New orders from Boeing
Despite this tragedy and the US justice system pointing out Boeing’s responsibility (a problem in the piloting software that would have been
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