The black box flight recorders from the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that crashed in Ethiopia were flown to France on Thursday for analysis as the ban on the model went worldwide after President Donald Trump added the US to countries that have grounded the aircraft.
France’s BEA air safety agency confirmed it has received the recorders from the plane that crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa on Sunday, killing all 157 people aboard. BEA investigators will try to remove information from the cockpit voice and flight data recorders, which were damaged in the disaster.
The information that black boxes contain about what the pilots and plane were doing help explain 90 per cent of all crashes, according to aviation experts.
On Wednesday, US authorities said new evidence showed similarities between the Ethiopia crash and that of a Lion Air flight in Indonesia in October that claimed the lives of 189 people.
The Federal Aviation Administration said findings from the crash site near Addis Ababa and “newly refined satellite data” warranted “further investigation of the possibility of a shared cause for the two incidents”.
An FAA emergency order grounded 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft until further notice, effectively taking the aircraft out of the skies globally after a growing number of airlines and countries had decided not to fly the planes until it was ascertained there are no safety issues.