Group Chief Executive Officer of Ethiopian Airlines, Mr. Tewolde GebreMariam, yesterday assured grieving families and concerned stakeholders that the world will soon “learn the truth” on the cause of the crash of its Boeing 777MAX 8 aircraft as investigations have commenced on the accident.
It has been more than two weeks since the tragic crash of the Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 in Addis Ababa killing all 157 persons on board.
GebreMariam spoke amid allegations by some US media linking the crash to the inexperience of the Ethiopian Airlines (ET) crew that flew the ill-fated Boeing 777MAX aircraft. The Ethiopian Airline CEO, however debunked such allegations reiterating it’s confidence in the competence of its crew and insisting the airline’s operations were in line with the best safety standards that can be found anywhere in the world.
Said GebreMariam, “Contrary to some media reports, after the Lion Air accident in October 2018, our pilots who fly the Boeing 737 Max 8 were fullytrained on the service bulletin issued by Boeing and the Emergency Airworthiness Directive issued by the USA FAA. Our pilots who fly the new model were trained on all appropriate simulators. The crews were well trained on this aircraft.”
He said ET is the only airline in Africa among the very few in the world with the B-737 MAX full flight Simulator for the training of pilots, and expressed the optimism that with investigations having been launched, the world will soon know the cause of the crash.
“At this time, I do not want to speculate as to the cause. The investigation of the accident is well underway, and we will soon learn the truth,” he said.
“Many questions on the B-737 MAX8 airplane remain without answers, and I pledge full and transparent cooperation to discover what went wrong. The plane that crashed was less than five months old. Despite the tragedy, Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines will continue to be linked well into the future.I fully support this – that within days after our crash, the plane had been grounded around the world. Until we have answers, putting one more life at risk is too much,” he added.