De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited and Ethiopian Airlines celebrated the delivery of the milestone Dash 8-400 aircraft bearing serial number 4600 on Friday, July 26.The aircraft is also the 25th Dash 8-400 aircraft delivered to Ethiopian Airlines.
Images: De Havilland Canada and Ethiopian Airlines.
Ethiopian Airlines also made this statement:
De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited celebrating the delivery of the 25th Dash 8-400 aircraft to Ethiopian Airlines, on July 26, 2019.
“The delivery of the 600th Dash 8-400 aircraft produced at our Toronto facility is a significant moment for De Havilland Canada and we are delighted that Ethiopian Airlines, our largest customer in Africa, is the recipient airline. Since this aircraft will become the 25th Dash 8-400 turboprop in Ethiopianโs fleet, we are celebrating two important milestones,” said Todd Young, Chief Operating Officer, De Havilland Canada.
Ethiopian Cargo is now connecting Chongqing, the largest municipality in Southwest China with Africa and South America with a weekly cargo flight as of June 26, 2019.
The route passes through Shanghai – Chongqing – Delhi – Addis Ababa – Lagos – Sao Paulo – Quito – Miami, connecting the main destinations of the three continents which cover a population of more than 3 billion people.
Ethiopian will be operating Boeing 777F freighter on the route and initially fly once in a week.
Top Copyright Photo (all others by the airline): Ethiopian Cargo (Ethiopian Airlines) Boeing 777-F60 ET-ARI (msn 42032) LAX (Michael B. Ing). Image: 946944.
Ethiopian Airlines commenced thrice weekly flights to Marseille, France on July 2, 2019.
The new service was inaugurated at a colorful event held in the VIP Salon at Addis Ababa International Airport in the presence of H. E. Mr. Frรฉdรฉric Bontems, French Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ethiopia and Mr Tewolde GebreMariam, Ethiopian Group CEO, both of whom were onboard the inaugural flight.
Members of the diplomatic community in Addis Ababa together with other invited guests graced the event. Cake cutting and champagne toast ceremony was held to mark the event.
Ethiopian Airlines has been flying to Paris since 1971.
Ethiopian Airlines is pleased to have served fans of the globally renowned British football teams Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur in their travel to Madrid where the teams played for Champions League final match.
Ethiopian deployed three chartered flights from London, Liverpool and Manchester carrying the fans to Madrid.
An Ethiopian Airlines pilot warned his management that more training and better communications was needed at the company before the tragic crash. Read the full story.
Ethiopian Airlines is pushing back strongly against criticism that its pilots were to blame for the tragic MAX accident.
The airline issued this statement:
Although we donโt want to comment on the investigation as it is still going on and we believe it is too early to comment, we would like to highlight some factual statements based on the preliminary report of the accident investigation.
Ethiopian airlines has the largest Aviation Academy in Africa with the most modern training devices and facilities of global standards which is accredited by all required national, regional and international regulatory agencies. Ethiopian Airlines is among the very few airlines in the world and the only one in Africa which has acquired and operates the Boeing 737 MAX 8 full flight simulator. However, it’s very unfortunate that the Boeing 737 MAX 8 simulator was not configured to simulate the MCAS operation by the aircraft manufacturer.
Ethiopian requirement for command position is over 3500 hours which is way above the FAA requirement of 1500 hours. In this case ET302 captain has a total of over 8000 hours of which 3445 hours is on Boeing 737NG. He was upgraded to commander position with over 6500 total hours. The First Officer was a graduate of Ethiopian Aviation Academy after successfully completing the required training per ICAO standards for the Commercial Pilot License and gone through the type rating training on Boeing 737NG and Boeing recommended and FAA approved differences training on Boeing 737 MAX 8 before he is assigned as co-pilot and he has exceeded the minimum ICAO requirement.
The preliminary accident investigation report, which has been conducted by a joint team from Ethiopia, USA, France and EASA, has made it abundantly clear that the Ethiopian Airlinesโ pilots have followed the procedures of the aircraft manufacturer.
Any effort that is being made to divert public attention from the flight control system problem of the airplane is a futile exercise because it is not based on factually correct analysis.
The fact that the entire world have grounded more than 370 Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplanes speaks loud and clear that the airplane has a problem.
It is important to refer to the safety recommendation part of the aircraft accident investigation preliminary report, which says:
SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS.
โข Since the repetitive un-commanded aircraft nose down conditions are noticed in this preliminary investigation it is recommended that the aircraft flight control system related to flight controllability shall be reviewed by the manufacturer.
โข Aviation Authorities shall verify that the review of the aircraft flight control system related to flight controllability has been adequately addressed by the manufacturer before the release of the aircraft to operations.
We would also like to focus on the following facts:
โข The automated anti stall feature (MCAS) was not known by airlines and pilots until after the Lion Air accident.
โข Even after the Lion Air accident the bulletin released by Boeing and the FAA airworthiness directive did not mention MCAS at all.
โข It was a major failure that the MCAS was designed to be automatically activated by a single source of information (Only one angle of attack sensor).
โข Although the pilots followed the procedures as stipulated in the bulletin and the airworthiness directive none of the expected warnings appeared in the cockpit which deprived the pilots of necessary and timely information on the critical phase of the 6 minutes flight.
โข As per the preliminary report, there is no evidence of any foreign object damage (bird strike or any other object) on the angle of attack sensor.
Since flight safety is our collective priority and should not be compromised by any means and not a single life should be at risk, we strongly believe that the recommendations made by the preliminary report should be fully implemented.
Ethiopian Airlines would like to assure all concerned that it will continue to cooperate with the investigation authorities.
Top Copyright Photo: One of the grounded MAX 8s: Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-8 MAX 8 ET-AVM (msn 62446) DUB (Greenwing). Image: 942621.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt has made this announcement for a segment to air tonight:
The CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde Gebremariam, tells NBC News in an exclusive interview that he is not sure his airline will ever fly the 737 MAX again, saying: โIf we fly them again, weโll be the last airline to fly them again.โย He added, โAt this stage, I cannot fully say that the airplane will fly back on Ethiopian Airlines. It may if we are fully convinced and if we are able to convince our pilots, if we are ever to convince our traveling public.โ
He continued, โBecause, you know, other airlines have grounded the airplane, but in our case beyond grounding the airplane, we had this tragic accident just a couple of months ago. So it takes a lot of efforts to convince everybody that the airplane is safe. But beyond that, I think we have to convince ourselves and we want to do that.โ
Ethiopian Airlines CEO wants rigorous review of Boeing 737-MAX planes following fatal crash
By Tom Costello
Two months after Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed, killing all 157 people on board, the CEO of the airline said his crews and passengers have lost confidence in the Boeing 737-MAX and he wants the company to conduct a more thorough review of the plane.
In an exclusive interview with NBC News on Monday, Tewolde Gebremariam said that the airline doesn’t yet know if it will fly the Boeing 737-MAX planes again. But he said, “At this stage I cannot, I cannot fully say that the airplane will fly back on Ethiopian Airlines. It may, if we are fully convinced and if we are able to convince our pilots, if we are ever to convince our traveling public.”
However, he also said that if the planes were back in service, Ethiopian Airlines would be “the last airline to fly them again.” “We have not got a time to discuss on the return to service and we have made it very clear on several occasions we would not be the first one to return their airplane back to air.”
Gebremariam said it’s not enough for Boeing to only review the “MCAS” anti-stall system believed responsible for the fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. He wants a much more rigorous review of the plane.
“We strongly believe that entire flight control system needs to be reviewed,” he said.
The Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10 followed a Lion Air crash in Indonesia last October. The two crashes were responsible for 346 deaths.
Investigators in both countries say the Boeing 737-MAX’s new MCAS anti-stall system seems to have played a role.
“It’s very abnormal for a new airplane to have two accidents, fatal accidents in a span of five months,” he said. “These are brand new airplanes.”
Boeing has admitted that “MCAS” misfired, putting both the Indonesian and Ethiopian planes into a fatal nose dive. The company is expected to submit its software fix for Federal Aviation Administration approval later this month.
But investigators have also noted the Ethiopian pilots were flying much faster than is typical, more than 500 miles per hour.
Still, Gebremariam insisted the pilots did everything they could to save their plane.
“They have followed the procedures correctly,” he said. “This should not happen again to any airline, even a single life should not be put at risk.”
Boeing said in a statement, “Boeing is working closely with pilots, airlines and global regulators to update the max and help prevent this tragic loss of life from happening again.โ
Gebremariam said the airline’s relationship with Boeing goes back more than 60 years, and he has confidence in Boeing, even if his crews have lost confidence in the 737-MAX.
“We still have very strong confidence in Boeing, but we want them to do the right thing without rushing to make sure this airplane is safe and clear confidence in all of us before it returns back to air.”
Liz Hayes investigates the disaster of Boeingโs 737 MAX jetliner. Why two supposedly state-of-the-art and safe planes crashed killing 346 people; why pilots now fear flying the 737 MAX; and whether Boeing could have averted the catastrophes.
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