The CEO of Ethiopian Airlines said Tuesday that the pilots of the doomed flight reported having “flight control problems” moments before it crashed Sunday, killing all 157 people aboard, according to a report.
Tewolde GebreMariam also told CNN that the “black box” will be sent to another country for analysis because Ethiopia lacks the technical capability to handle the job.
He did not specify where the damaged flight data and cockpit voice recorders would end up.
GebreMariam’s comments about the crew’s struggle with the controls suggest that the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was not responding to the pilots’ inputs as they lost control of the aircraft, CNN correspondent Richard Quest said.
But the airline chief said the pilots were aware of an airworthiness directive issued after the October crash of a Lion Air MAX 8 and had undergone additional training.
At age 29, Yared Getachew was the youngest captain at Ethiopian Airlines, though he had accrued 8,000 flight hours.
The first officer, Ahmed Nur Mohammod Nur, had logged only 200 flight hours.