Fresh details have emerged on the Ethiopian airplane crash that consumed 157 lives.
According to the Wall Street Journal, pilots of the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 tried all the emergency steps outlined by the manufacturer but still could not regain control.
The pilots even switched off the Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) but failed to recover control.
The paper reports that the pilots then switched the system back as they tried to find other ways to control the jet before it crashed.
MCAS was a system that didn’t exist in any of the Boeing 737’s before.
This software is designed to tell the plane to move its nose down to increase its speed and prevent it from stalling. When pilots are unable to take control of the plane, they are advised to switch off the MCAS.
Read: KQ Flies On The Boeing 737 Max 8 Plan Amid Safety Concerns
Last week, the BBC reported that soon after take-off — and just 450ft (137m) above the ground — the aircraft’s nose began to pitch down. This pointed to the work of the MCAS, which was blamed in another crash in Indonesia of the same model that claimed 189 lives.
One of the pilot is said to have said to the other “pitch up, pitch up!” before their radio died.
Neither of the two planes that were involved in the fatal crashes carried the alert systems, which are designed to warn pilots when sensors produce contradictory readings.
Boeing is said to be making corrections to the models, by installing an extra warning system on all 737 Max aircraft.
The aircraft update is designed to ensure the MCAS will no longer repeatedly make corrections when a pilot tries to regain control.
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