WASHINGTON: Embattled US aviation giant Boeing on Thursday insisted on the “fundamental safety” of its 737 MAX aircraft but pledged to take all necessary steps to ensure the jets’ airworthiness.
The statements came hours after Ethiopian officials said pilots of a doomed plane had crashed last month after following the company’s recommendations, leaving 157 people dead.
The preliminary findings released Thursday by transportation authorities in Addis Ababa put the American aircraft giant under even greater pressure to restore public trust, with nearly 350 people dead in crashes involving its formerly top-selling 737 MAX aircraft in less than five months amid mounting signs the company’s onboard anti-stall systems were fault.
“We remain confident in the fundamental safety of the 737 MAX,” CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement, adding that impending software fixes would make the aircraft “among the safest airplanes ever to fly.”
Muilenburg also acknowledged, however, that an “erroneous activation” of Boeing’s so-called Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System had occurred. The system is designed to prevent stalls but may have forced the Ethiopian and Indonesian jets into the ground.
In an earlier statement, the head of the company’s commercial aircraft division had said Boeing was ready to perform “any and all additional steps” to enhance the safety of the 737 MAX.
A report by Ethiopian investigators on Thursday said the crew of the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed last month, killing 157 people, repeatedly followed procedures recommended by Boeing, but were unable to regain control of the jet.
The initial probe appears to confirm concerns about MCAS, with data echoing that from the crash of the Indonesian Lion Air 737 MAX 8 flight in October last year which killed 189 people.
Ethiopian authorities’ full report has not been publicly released, but according to a draft copy seen by AFP, shortly after take-off a sensor recording the level of the plane began transmitting faulty data, prompting the autopilot system to point the nose downwards.
“The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer, but was not able to control the aircraft,” said Ethiopian Transport Minister Dagmawit Moges, unveiling results of the preliminary probe into the crash.
The report recommends “the aircraft flight control system shall be reviewed by the manufacturer,” Dagmawit said.
“Aviation authorities shall verify that the review of the aircraft flight control system has been adequately addressed by the manufacturer before the release of the aircraft for operations,” she added.
Boeing now says it plans to release a software fix to the anti-stall system used aboard the 737 MAX aircraft in the coming weeks.
US regulators this week demanded further improvements to a proposed fix before it could be submitted for review and announced a review of the certification of the automated flight control system on the 737 MAX.
The Ethiopian Airlines flight was headed to Nairobi on a clear morning on March 10 when so-called Angle of Attack sensors on either side of the nose of the plane began sending conflicting information to the auto pilot system shortly after take-off.
According to report AFP saw, the nose of the plane pointed down four times without pilot input.
The autopilot was switched off at some point and the captain called out “pull up” three times to his first officer as the pair battled to gain control.
Three minutes after takeoff and three minutes before the crash, the captain asked the first officer to try the manual trim system, which changes the level of the plane. He replied that it was not working.
They asked to turn back, but it was too late. The plane pitched down at a 40-degree angle, smashing into a field outside Addis Ababa at about 500 knots (920 kilometers/575 miles per hour).
Both engines were buried at a depth of 10 meters (32 feet), in a crater 28 meters wide and 40 meters long, with fragments of debris found within a radius of about 300 meters.
“This accident was not survivable,” said the report.
Citizens from over 30 countries were on board.
Shortly after the Lion Air crash last year, Boeing issued a bulletin reminding operators of emergency guidelines to override the anti-stall system, amid indications it had received erroneous information from Angle of Attack sensors during that disaster.
Boeing defends ‘fundamental safety’ of 737 MAX after crash report
Boeing defends ‘fundamental safety’ of 737 MAX after crash report
Landslides in Indonesia’s Sumatra kill at least 27, rescuers search for missing
- Torrential rain in the province since last week had caused flash floods and landslides in four different districts
- Extreme weather is expected in Indonesia toward the end of 2024, as the La Nina phenomenon increases rainfalls across the tropical archipelago
Torrential rain in the province since last week had caused flash floods and landslides in four different districts, Indonesia’s disaster agency has said.
A landslide in a village in Deli Serdang on Wednesday killed seven and injured 20, Hadi Wahyudi, North Sumatra police spokesperson told Reuters.
Rescuers were looking for missing people, including those trapped in a minibus and other vehicles on a hilly interprovince road hit by a mudslide, he said, adding he could not give an estimate for the number of affected people.
In other places, rescuers have found 20 dead during a search that started over the weekend. They are still searching for two missing.
“Today, we’re focusing our search to find missing people and clearing the roads affected by the landslides,” said Hadi, adding excavators were deployed.
The landslides and flash floods damaged houses, mosques, and rice fields.
Heavy rains also triggered floods in the provincial capital of Medan, forcing a delay in votes for a regional election in some polling stations.
Extreme weather is expected in Indonesia toward the end of 2024, as the La Nina phenomenon increases rainfalls across the tropical archipelago, the country’s weather agency has warned.
The Australian Senate debates the world’s first social media ban for children under 16
- The bill that would make social media platforms liable for fines of up to $33 million for systemic failures to prevent young children from holding accounts
MELBOURNE: The Australian Senate was debating a ban on children younger than 16 years old from social media Thursday after the House of Representatives overwhelmingly supported the age restriction.
The bill that would make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent young children from holding accounts.
It is likely to be passed by the Senate on Thursday, the Parliament’s final session for the year and potentially the last before elections, which are due within months.
The major parties’ support for the ban all but guarantees the legislation will become law. But many child welfare and mental health advocates are concerned about unintended consequences.
Unaligned Sen. Jacqui Lambie complained about the limited amount of time the government gave the Senate to debate the age restriction, which she described as “undercooked.”
“I thought this was a good idea. A lot of people out there thought it was a good idea until we looked at the detail and, let’s be honest, there’s no detail,” Lambie told the Senate.
Opposition Sen. Maria Kovacic said the bill was not radical but necessary.
“The core focus of this legislation is simple: It demands that social media companies take reasonable steps to identify and remove underage users from their platforms,” Kovacic told the Senate.
“This is a responsibility these companies should have been fulfilling long ago, but for too long they have shirked these responsibilities in favor of profit,” she added.
Sen. David Shoebridge, from the minor Greens party, said mental health experts agreed that the ban could dangerously isolate many children who used social media to find support.
“This policy will hurt vulnerable young people the most, especially in regional communities and especially the LGBTQI community, by cutting them off,” Shoebridge told the Senate.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly carried the bill 102 votes to 13.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland urged senators to pass the bill which she said reflected the Australian community’s view.
“The ... government is on the side of supporting parents and protecting young people,” Rowland told the House.
Once the legislation becomes law, the platforms would have one year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced.
The platforms complained that the law would be unworkable, and urged the Senate to delay the vote until at least June next year when a government-commissioned evaluation of age assurance technologies made its report on how young children could be excluded.
Critics argue the government is attempting to convince parents it is protecting their children ahead of general elections due by May. The government hopes that voters will reward it for responding to parents’ concerns about their children’s addiction to social media. Some argue the legislation could cause more harm than it prevents.
Criticisms include that the legislation was rushed through Parliament without adequate scrutiny, is ineffective, poses privacy risks for all users, and undermines parental authority to make decisions for their children.
Opponents of the bill also argue the ban would isolate children, deprive them of the positive aspects of social media, drive them to the dark web, discourage children too young for social media to report harm and reduce incentives for platforms to improve online safety.
Explosions heard in Ukraine’s Odesa, Kropyvnytskyi – media reports
- Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper urged residents to stay in shelter in a message on the Telegram app
Explosions were heard in the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa and the city of Kropyvnytskyi in central Ukraine on Thursday morning amid reports of a Russian cruise missile attack, Ukrainian news outlet Zerkalo Tyzhnya and other local media reported.
Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper urged residents to stay in shelter in a message on the Telegram app.
Norway, World Wide Fund for Nature square off in court over deep sea mining
- Norway could become one of the first countries to authorize seabed mining, arguing the importance of not relying on China for minerals essential for renewable technology
- WWF-Norway is also calling on the Norwegian government to stop giving public support to mining companies for the exploration phase and to allocate these funds to independent research institutions
OSLO: The World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) Norwegian chapter will have its day in court Thursday, after it sued Norway for opening up its seabed to mining before performing sufficient impact studies.
Already Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer, Norway could become one of the first countries to authorize seabed mining, arguing the importance of not relying on China for minerals essential for renewable technology.
While deep-sea mining is contentious due to its potential impact on vulnerable marine ecosystems, Norway’s parliament in January formally gave its green light to open up parts of its seabed to exploration.
“We believe the government is violating Norwegian law by now opening up for a new and potentially destructive industry without adequately assessing the consequences,” Karoline Andaur, CEO of WWF-Norway, said in a statement.
Norway “must halt the rushed process, must actively support a national and global moratorium — a temporary ban on seabed mining until there is sufficient knowledge,” Andaur said in an online meeting earlier in November.
With their lawsuit, WWF-Norway is also calling on the Norwegian government to stop giving public support to mining companies for the exploration phase and to allocate these funds to independent research institutions.
That would help “to close the many knowledge gaps about marine life,” Andaur said.
The trial will run until December 5.
On April 12, Norway’s Ministry of Energy announced that it was opening up an area of the Norwegian Sea and Greenland Sea to exploration, with the aim of awarding the first licenses in the first half of 2025.
Within the area, which is the size of the United Kingdom, it has designated locations covering 38 percent of the area suitable for exploration for a first licensing round.
“Before any exploitation can begin, it has to be shown that the proposed exploitation can take place in a sustainable and responsible manner,” Astrid Bergmal, state secretary at the energy ministry, told AFP in an email.
The first projects will also have to be approved by parliament, Bergmal added.
“The first phase will consist of mapping and exploration, which has little environmental impact,” she said.
But critics see this stage as a first step toward exploitation.
According to several NGOs, opening up the seabed poses an additional threat to an ecosystem that is little-known and has already been weakened by global warming.
Possible dangers include the destruction of marine habitats and organisms, noise and light pollution, as well as the risk of chemical leaks from machines and species being displaced.
Norwegian authorities meanwhile stress that by allowing the prospecting they want to fill in the gaps in knowledge.
In early 2023, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate published a report concluding that “substantial resources are in place on the seabed” including minerals such as copper, zinc and cobalt.
Thousands left queuing to vote in Namibia after scheduled polls close
- The vote could usher in the desert nation’s first woman leader even as her party, the ruling SWAPO, faces the strongest challenge yet to its 34-year grip on power
- SWAPO’s candidate and current vice president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, is being challenged by IPC leader Panduleni Itula, a former dentist and lawyer
WHINDHOEK: Logistical issues on Wednesday left thousands of Namibians waiting in queues to vote in pivotal presidential and legislative elections, some for up to 12 hours, with polling stations staying open hours later than planned.
The vote could usher in the desert nation’s first woman leader even as her party, the ruling South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) faces the strongest challenge yet to its 34-year grip on power.
Some voters told AFP they queued all day, blaming technical problems that included issues with voter identification tablets and insufficient ballot papers.
“It’s absolutely disappointing,” said Reagan Cooper, a 43-year-old farmer among the hundred or so voters outside the town hall polling station in the capital Windhoek.
“The voters have turned out, but the electoral commission has failed us,” Cooper told AFP.
In the face of criticism from all the political parties, including SWAPO, the Electoral Commission of Namibia extended voting hours for “no specified time,” according to Windhoek region ECN head Rakondjerua Kavari.
Voting was halted for an hour at the Windhoek town hall site due to a lack of ballots, with applause welcoming the delivery of more waking sleepy, seated voters around 11:30 pm.
The last voter there cast his ballot more than four hours after the scheduled closing time — 9:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) — and vote counting then began almost immediately.
According to Namibia’s electoral law, those in queues before polls are scheduled to close should be allowed to vote.
Petrus Shaama, chief officer of the ECN, said it was obligated to ensure voters could cast a ballot.
But the main opposition party, the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), blamed the ECN for the long lines and cried foul play.
“We have reason to believe that the ECN is deliberately suppressing voters and deliberately trying to frustrate voters from casting their vote,” said Christine Aochamus of the IPC.
Armed with folding chairs and umbrellas to cope with the slow-moving lines and blazing sun, many Namibians spent half the day waiting to vote.
At one polling station inside the University of Science and Technology in Windhoek, hundreds of people were still in line at 9:00 p.m. despite some having arrived at 6:00 am, an hour before polls opened.
Polling site managers told AFP that problems with tablets used to check voters’ identities using fingerprints included untimely updates, overheating and dead batteries.
SWAPO’s candidate and current vice president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, was one of the first to vote and called on Namibians “to come out in their numbers.”
An estimated 1.5 million people in the sparsely populated nation were registered to vote.
SWAPO has governed since leading mineral-rich Namibia to independence from South Africa in 1990 but complaints about unemployment and enduring inequalities could force Nandi-Ndaitwah into an unprecedented second round.
IPC leader Panduleni Itula, a former dentist and lawyer, said Wednesday he was optimistic he could “unseat the revolutionary movement.”
Itula, 67, took 29 percent of votes in the 2019 elections, losing to SWAPO leader Hage Geingob with 56 percent. It was a remarkable performance considering Geingob, who died in February, had won almost 87 percent five years before that.
Namibia is a major uranium and diamond exporter but not many of its nearly three million people have benefitted from that wealth.
“There’s a lot of mining activity that goes on in the country, but it doesn’t really translate into improved infrastructure, job opportunities,” said independent political analyst Marisa Lourenco, based in Johannesburg.
“That’s where a lot of the frustration is coming from, (especially) the youth,” she said.
Unemployment among 15- to 34-year-olds is estimated at 46 percent, according to the latest figures from 2018, almost triple the national average.
First-time voter and environmental health student Sophia Varela, 24, told AFP she was “hoping for change” and “jobs for the youth.”
For the first time in Namibia’s recent history, analysts say a second voting round is a somewhat realistic option.
That would take place within 60 days of the announcement of the first round of results due by Saturday.
“The outcome will be tight,” said self-employed Hendry Amupanda, 32, who queued since 9:00 p.m. the night before to cast his ballot.
“I want the country to get better and people to get jobs,” said Amupanda, wearing slippers and equipped with a chair, blanket and snacks.
Marvyn Pescha, a self-employed consultant, said his father was part of SWAPO’s liberation struggle and he was not going to abandon the party.
“But I want SWAPO to be challenged for better policies. Some opportunistic leaders have tarnished the reputation of the party, they misuse it for self-enrichment,” the 50-year-old said.
While lauded for leading Namibia to independence, SWAPO is nervous about its standing after other liberation-era movements in the region have lost favor with young voters.
In the past six months, South Africa’s African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority and the Botswana Democratic Party was ousted after almost six decades in power.
