South African and Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines is widely considered to be among sub-Saharan Africa’s best operators. And on a continent with a history of national airlines folding often due to reckless financial mismanagement, he says, the Airlines are always expanding their fleet and Ethiopian Airlines was the first African airline to order the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. It has also just announced the purchase of another 10 737-800s, at a cost of $750m.
A Boeing 737-8AL that was equipped with twin CFMICFM56-7B26 powerplants. The airframe first flew on 9 October 2006, and was delivered to Kenya Airways on 27 October.The aircraft was six months old at the time of the accident.[ It was one of three Boeing 737-800s Kenya Airways had recently acquired from Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise.
It found that the pilot failed to notice the aircraft was banking uncontrollably and the co-pilot shouted for him to turn in the wrong direction. All 114 people, including five Britons, died when flight KQ507 nose-dived into a swamp less than two minutes after take-off from Douala airport in Cameroon in May 2007. Climbing in the dark during a thunderstorm, the pilot became disorientated and reacted too late as the aircraft rolled to the right. He was recorded saying “We are crashing” as he struggled to regain control. Moments later his 23-year-old first officer mistakenly told him to turn right, before shouting , “left, left, left”. The six-month-old Boeing 737-800 crashed seconds later.
“We saw a flash in the sky,” he said. “We saw a flash over the sea and it was the plane falling. The weather was really bad, it was all thunder and rain.” was what witness who saw the Beirut to Addis Ababa flight coming down from the sky. The crash invited comparisons with the Kenya Airways crash in Cameroon in 2007, in which 114 people died. Both incidents involved Boeing 737-800 aircraft taking off in bad weather.
The plane, a Boeing 737-800, was carrying 82 passengers, including small children, and eight crew, Ethiopian Airlines said. This model can seat 189 passengers. It disappeared from radar screens some five minutes after take-off in stormy weather at about 0200 local time, near the village of Naameh, about 3.5km (2 miles) from the coast.
According to the airline, aircraft B-737-800MAX with registration number ET-AVJ took off at 8.38am local time from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and lost contact at 8.44am, which is about six minutes after takeoff. Confirming the fatal accident, the Office of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, expressed their deepest condolence to the families and friends of those who lost their lives in the Sunday morning crash.