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France starts Boeing crash probe, jets could be grounded for weeks

15 March 2019 00:17 (UTC +04:00)

Boeing Co’s 737 MAX 8 and 9 planes will be grounded for “weeks” until a software upgrade can be tested and installed, U.S. lawmakers said on Thursday, as questions mount about Sunday’s deadly crash in Ethiopia, ONA reports citing Reuters.

Investigators in France will begin analyzing the crashed Ethiopian Airlines jet’s black boxes on Friday, seeking clues into a disaster that has angered scores of mourning families and grounded Boeing’s global 737 MAX fleet.

Sunday’s crash after take-off from Addis Ababa killed 157 people from 35 nations in the second such calamity involving Boeing’s flagship new model in six months.

Possible links between the accidents have rocked the aviation industry, scared passengers, and left the world’s biggest planemaker scrambling to prove the safety of a money-spinning model intended to be the standard for decades.

U.S. Representative Rick Larsen said after the briefing the software upgrade would take a few weeks to complete, and installing it on all aircraft would take “at least through April.” He said additional training would also have to take place.

Relatives of the dead stormed out of a meeting with Ethiopian Airlines on Thursday, decrying a lack of transparency, while others made the painful trip to the crash scene.

“I can’t find you! Where are you?” said one Ethiopian woman, draped in traditional white mourning shawl, as she held a framed portrait of her brother in the charred and debris-strewn field.

Nations around the world, including an initially reluctant United States, have suspended the 371 MAX models in operation, though airlines are largely coping by switching planes.

Another nearly 5,000 MAXs are on order, meaning the financial implications are huge for the industry. Moody’s rating agency said the fallout from the crash would not immediately affect Boeing’s credit rating.

After an apparent tussle over where the investigation should be held, the flight data and cockpit voice recorders were handed over to France’s Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA).