Black Box Shows "Clear Similarities" Between Ethiopian, Lion Air Crashes

Similarities between flight data recorder will be subject of further investigation

Ethiopia's transport minister said Sunday that information from the flight data recorder on the Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed last week shows "clear similarities" with the crash of the same type of plane in Indonesia in October.

Dagmawit Moges told journalists that the condition of the "black boxes" - the data and voice record was good and that enough data had been recovered that her ministry's Accident Investigation Bureau would release a preliminary report on what happened to Flight 302 in 30 days.

"During the investigation of the FDR (flight data recorder) clear similarities were noted between Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610, which will be subject of further investigation," Dagmawit said.

Initial data from the doomed Ethiopian Airlines flight as well as subsequent satellite information recovered showed an erratic flight path during the six minutes that the plane was in the air before it crashed into a field outside the capital, Addis Ababa, on March 10, killing all 157 aboard.

The plane ascended and descended and then ascended again, all the while flying at speeds well in excess of normal takeoff procedure. The pilot, Yared Getachew, was considered very experienced, with more than 8,000 hours of flying time.

There were enough similarities to the crash of the Lion Air jet in Indonesia in October, which also involved a Boeing 737 Max 8, that authorities around the world agreed to ground the plane.

Ethiopian investigators on Thursday traveled with the voice and data recorders to France, where they are being analyzed by the Bureau of Inquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety.

Dagmawit said the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board also was involved in the analysis.

A preliminary report about the causes of the Lion Air crash pointed to erroneous data from a sensor causing the aircraft's new automated stabilizer system to push the jet's nose down. The pilots then struggled to pull the plane up, and it finally crashed into the Java Sea.

The minister's comments Sunday suggested that a similar series of events may have caused the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

In November, Boeing issued a bulletin for how to reset the stabilizer if it started to push the plane's nose down.