The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said that the cause of the 10 March crash of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in Ethiopia that killed all 157 people on board had not yet been determined.
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Last week, the FAA grounded all Boeing 737 Max airplanes in the United States following a crash in Ethiopia and an October crash in Indonesia that killed 189 persons on board.
Meanwhile, US aerospace giant Boeing is working with pilots on newly released updates to the 737 MAX planes, Vice President Mike Sinnett told reporters at a company facility in the state of Washington on Wednesday. However, Boeing said in a separate statement on Wednesday that not all customers wish to include the new feature on their primary flight display, hence it is being offered as an option.
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Both crashes occurred within minutes of takeoff and data recovered by investigators indicates that pilots wrestled with a computerized maneuver characteristics augmentation system (MCAS) in failed attempts to regain control of the aircraft. MCAS pitches the nose of the plane down if a sensor detects a too high angle of attack that might lead to a stall.
he accidents were believed to be caused by software defects in the plane’s automated flight control system.
READ MORE: Boeing to Show Off Software in Bid to Return 737 MAX to Service After Crashes