Black box data suggests links between Ethiopian Airlines, Lion Air crashes

Ethiopian Airlines planes.
(Image credit: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)

Black box data from Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, which crashed shortly after takeoff on March 10 killing all 157 on board, suggested that the accident was caused by a faulty sensor that activated an automated stall-prevention software. The software is then believed by investigators to have repeatedly pushed down on the nose of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, forcing the plane into an irrecoverable nose-dive.

The revelation is similar to suspicions about another 737 MAX, flown by Lion Air, that crashed in the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia last October. The crashes were thought to be linked prior to the results of the black box data. The 737 MAX was therefore grounded worldwide while Boeing worked to address the issue. The investigation into both crashes is still ongoing.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.