The head of Ethiopian Airlines said Monday that the carrier “believes in” Boeing despite the crash of its 737 MAX 8 jetliner that killed all 157 people aboard and led to the model’s grounding.
“Let me be clear: Ethiopian Airlines believes in Boeing. They have been a partner of ours for many years,” Tewolde Gebremariam said in a statement.
“We will work with investigators in Ethiopia, in the US and elsewhere to figure out what went wrong,” he added, according to Reuters.
The Ethiopian flight crashed shortly after takeoff March 10 en route to Kenya — marking the second disaster involving a MAX 8 since an Indonesian Lion Air plane went down in October, killing all 189 on board.
Ethiopia’s transport minister has said “clear similarities” exist between the two crashes based on an analysis of flight voice and data recorders, without giving further details.
While pledging “full and transparent cooperation to discover what went wrong,” Tewolde also struck back at reports critical of his airline’s safety record.
“Contrary to some media reports, our pilots who fly the new model were trained on all appropriate simulators,” Tewolde said, referring to a recent report in the New York Times that the pilot of the doomed flight had not trained on a MAX 8 simulator.
The Washington Post also has reported that the US Federal Aviation Administration received two complaints about Ethiopian’s training and safety record in 2015.
Tewolde called for the MAX 8’s grounding after the accident, but in the statement said that “despite the tragedy, Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines will continue to be linked well into the future.”
Meanwhile, Boeing will brief more than 200 global airline pilots, technical leaders and regulators this week on software and training updates for the MAX aircraft.
A spokesman for Ethiopian Airlines said it had no “immediate plans” to attend the Boeing session on Wednesday, without giving further details.
The meeting in Renton, Washington, is a sign that the plane manufacturer is nearing completion on a planned software patch required to return the grounded fleet to commercial service, though it will still need approval from regulators.
Garuda Indonesia airline was invited to the briefing, chief executive Ari Askhara told Reuters on Monday.
Last week, the country’s national carrier said it planned to cancel its order for 49 737 MAX jets because of passenger mistrust.
“We were informed on Friday, but because it is short notice, we can’t send a pilot,” Askhara said, adding that the airline had requested a webinar with Boeing, only to be rejected.
A Boeing rep said the meeting formed part of several in-person information sessions.
“We have been scheduling, and will continue to arrange, additional meetings to communicate with all current, and many future, MAX customers and operators,” the spokeswoman said.
Singapore Airlines said its offshoot, SilkAir, which flies the MAX, had received an invitation to the meeting and would send representatives.
Representatives of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore also will take part, a spokeswoman for the regulator said.
Also, Korean Air Lines, which before the grounding had been due to receive its first 737 MAX in April, said it planned to send pilots to the session.
South Korean low-cost carrier Eastar Jet will send two pilots, a spokesman said.