The preliminary report on the crash of Ethiopian airliner flight ET409 in Lebanon in which all 90 people on board died earlier this year, indicates that both the pilot’s and co-pilot’s inexperience with the jet was “certainly behind the accident”, according to local reports.
The pilot had one month of experience with the Boeing 737-800 and his co-pilot had four months experience, he added.
The report has not yet been made public,
The report on the crash that took place last January 25 off the Naameh coast in south Lebanon clearly points to pilot error, according to a source close to the probe.
“The accident was due to a series of errors on the part of the pilots who failed to take into account the signals emitted by the plane’s instruments,” the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
“The report indicates that the plane was in good condition and points to error on the part of the pilot and co-pilot, both of whom had little experience with the jet,” the source added.
The pilots erroneously believed that the jet was on automatic pilot and as a result failed to heed the alarm signals as the plane veered off course before crashing, he added.
Lebanese officials have previously said that data recovered from the plane’s black box showed all instruments were working well until it plunged into the Mediterranean in a fierce storm.
The probe into the crash is being led by the Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses (BEA), France’s accident investigation agency.
Airline sued
A multi-million dollar lawsuit was filed last March in a US court by relatives of passengers killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash
They have charged that US plane-maker Boeing was responsible for severe mechanical failure which they have alleged was probably behind the tragedy.
The lawsuit was filed in Chicago where Boeing is headquartered
83 passengers and seven crew were killed on the aircraft.
This report by BEA could affect the lawsuit , since the plane was functioning properly and the crash was blamed on the pilots.
Ethiopian Airlines has still not ruled out foul play as a reason for the crash.
This is a very insensitive and illogical reasoning based on an inconclusive evidence. every pilot and first officer has always his first time on an airplane and that has never been a cause for aircraft crashes let alone 4 months and 1 year of experience.
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1 month and 4 months experience… that is a joke! At least one of the pilots should have had more experience….
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Is that a standard you set just to make them look bad and use it as a means for diverting attention? Every new airplane has pilots who have no experience on the aircraft. Again it has never been a cause for crashes.
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I do not know where the information came from. As far as I know, the pilot has quite a lot of experience flying 737. Even let’s say he has very little experience, there does not cause a plane crash. If it is that way, all pilots that started fresh will crash planes. That is totally stupid comment. Someone wants to divert the blame to the pilots…
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