Ethiopian Airlines sticks with Boeing despite tragedy

March 25, 2019 in Business, Companies, Transport, Travel & Tourism by Editor

March 25—Ethiopian Airlines management on Monday said US-based Boeing remains their first choice for equipment and there are no plans to look elsewhere following the recent crash of a Boeing 737-800 Max en-route to Nairobi from Addis Ababa. It was the second such model of the latest 737 version to go down within six months after that of Indonesian-owned Lion Air.

There were no survivors among the 149 passengers and eight crew members on the scheduled ET302 which inexplicably went down on March 9. However airline officials in Addis Ababa have expressed indignation at the tone of some recent media reports that human error was the main cause and  the pilots were not sufficiently trained.

Earlier today, Tewolde GebreMariam the airline Group CEO said in a statement, “The investigation of the accident is well underway, and we will learn the truth. At this time, I do not want to speculate as to the cause. Many questions on the B-737 MAX airplane remain without answers, and I pledge full and transparent cooperation to discover what went wrong.”

GebreMariam said, “Let me be clear:  Ethiopian Airlines believes in Boeing.  They have been a partner of ours for many years.  More than two-thirds of our fleet is Boeing.  We were the first African airline to fly the 767, 757, 777-200LR, and we were the second nation in the world (after Japan) to take delivery of the 787 Dreamliner.”

He said, “Less than a month ago, we took delivery of yet another new two 737 cargo planes (a different version from the one that crashed). 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.”

The captain of the ill-fated flight had reported difficulties with the aircraft with intentions to make an emergency landing when ET 302 crashed. “This tragedy won’t define us.  We pledge to work with Boeing and our colleagues in all the airlines to make air travel even safer. As the largest aviation Group on the continent of Africa, we represent The New Spirit of Africa and will continue to move forward. We are rated as a 4-star global airline with a high safety record and member of Star Alliance.  That will not change,” GebreMariam said.