Two pilots filed complaints with the Federal Aviation Administration about allegedly flawed training programs and poor safety procedures at Ethiopian Airlines years before a Boeing 737 MAX commercial jet crashed in Ethiopia with 157 people on-board last week, according to a Federal Aviation Administration database.
The 2015 complaints, filed before the Max 8 was in use, are critical of training and pilot documentation on the 737 in use at the time, as well as two larger Boeing planes. They could also lead to renewed scrutiny of Ethiopian Airlines, a fast-growing international airline that has enjoyed a generally positive safety reputation in international aviation circles.
One pilot said the airline didn't "have the infrastructure" to support the fleet of Boeing and Airbus jets it ordered, and alleged the airline had a "fear-based" management culture in which "safety is being sacrificed for expansion and profit margin." The pilot also accused the airline of failing to update pilot manuals and leaving out certain checklists designed to help pilots respond to "non-normal" situations. And another pilot criticized Ethiopian regulators for maintaining lax standards with respect to crew flight and rest time. The FAA's data does not identify the pilots by name.
Anmut Lemma, a spokesman for Ethiopia's Civil Aviation Authority, said because the complaints were lodged years ago the agency would need "further investigation" before commenting additionally. A spokesman for Ethiopian Airlines could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The FAA closed the complaints less than a month later and it's unclear whether the agency shared them with Ethiopia's Civil Aviation Authority.
An FAA spokesman emphasized that the agency has a "long-standing and robust" program that evaluates airlines overseas in conjunction with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations organization responsible for standardizing international airline regulations.
"The FAA regularly evaluates foreign civil aviation authorities to ensure they continue to adhere to ICAO standards," FAA communications manager Ian Gregor said in a statement.
Mike Boyd, a Colorado-based aviation analyst with Boyd Group International, said the two complaints are "not a smoking gun," but actually more like "an artillery barrage" that call for additional scrutiny on airlines' roles in the two deadly crashes. Boyd referred to multiple published reports that the pilot of the doomed plane had 8,000 flying hours while the copilot had just 200 hours.
"There is no way [Ethiopian Airlines] can claim they had a qualified crew on that flight," Boyd wrote in an email Wednesday. In the U.S. copilots on commercial flights are required to have at least 1,500 flight hours.
The first 2015 pilot complaint "is totally consistent with an airline whose standards would put a 200-hour pilot in a sophisticated 737-MAX," Boyd said. "That is not inconsequential and it's a scandal that, instead of investigating the fact that we have an airline such as [Ethiopian Airlines] flying into the U.S., we have Congress running off into the weeds chasing Boeing/FAA issues."
The complaints have surfaced at a time when Boeing, the FAA and Ethiopian Airlines are under intense scrutiny.
22/03/19 Aaron Gregg/Washington Post/NDTV
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The 2015 complaints, filed before the Max 8 was in use, are critical of training and pilot documentation on the 737 in use at the time, as well as two larger Boeing planes. They could also lead to renewed scrutiny of Ethiopian Airlines, a fast-growing international airline that has enjoyed a generally positive safety reputation in international aviation circles.
One pilot said the airline didn't "have the infrastructure" to support the fleet of Boeing and Airbus jets it ordered, and alleged the airline had a "fear-based" management culture in which "safety is being sacrificed for expansion and profit margin." The pilot also accused the airline of failing to update pilot manuals and leaving out certain checklists designed to help pilots respond to "non-normal" situations. And another pilot criticized Ethiopian regulators for maintaining lax standards with respect to crew flight and rest time. The FAA's data does not identify the pilots by name.
Anmut Lemma, a spokesman for Ethiopia's Civil Aviation Authority, said because the complaints were lodged years ago the agency would need "further investigation" before commenting additionally. A spokesman for Ethiopian Airlines could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The FAA closed the complaints less than a month later and it's unclear whether the agency shared them with Ethiopia's Civil Aviation Authority.
An FAA spokesman emphasized that the agency has a "long-standing and robust" program that evaluates airlines overseas in conjunction with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations organization responsible for standardizing international airline regulations.
"The FAA regularly evaluates foreign civil aviation authorities to ensure they continue to adhere to ICAO standards," FAA communications manager Ian Gregor said in a statement.
Mike Boyd, a Colorado-based aviation analyst with Boyd Group International, said the two complaints are "not a smoking gun," but actually more like "an artillery barrage" that call for additional scrutiny on airlines' roles in the two deadly crashes. Boyd referred to multiple published reports that the pilot of the doomed plane had 8,000 flying hours while the copilot had just 200 hours.
"There is no way [Ethiopian Airlines] can claim they had a qualified crew on that flight," Boyd wrote in an email Wednesday. In the U.S. copilots on commercial flights are required to have at least 1,500 flight hours.
The first 2015 pilot complaint "is totally consistent with an airline whose standards would put a 200-hour pilot in a sophisticated 737-MAX," Boyd said. "That is not inconsequential and it's a scandal that, instead of investigating the fact that we have an airline such as [Ethiopian Airlines] flying into the U.S., we have Congress running off into the weeds chasing Boeing/FAA issues."
The complaints have surfaced at a time when Boeing, the FAA and Ethiopian Airlines are under intense scrutiny.
22/03/19 Aaron Gregg/Washington Post/NDTV
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