Unable to stabilize the 737 Max 8 plane even after following the emergency procedures recommended by Boeing, the pilots tried together to pull the jet's nose up repeatedly during the last moments of the flight, the preliminary report revealed. But the downward force of the aircraft was too great to overcome.
The captain called out "pull up" three times to tell the second-in-command to raise the nose. Both pilots tried to pull the nose up together to keep the plane flying, but they were unable to regain control.
The problems on board the Ethiopian Airlines flight mirror those encountered on the doomed Lion Air flight 610 -- which operated the same 737 Max 8 model and crashed in October -- in what could be a major blow to Boeing as it struggles to get the aircraft back in service.
The report on the Ethiopian Airlines crash does not specifically name the Max 8's plane's anti-stall system -- called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) -- which is suspected to have contributed to the Lion Air disaster. But its findings make it likely that the MCAS system pushed the plane into a dive fueled by erroneous angle of attack sensor readings.
Boeing is currently working on a change to the system's software.
The preliminary report, which has not yet been publicly released, does not come to a finding of probable cause. A final report could take as long as a year to produce.
The timeline of the flight, detailed in the preliminary report, reveals that the pilots' struggle to control the plane began moments after it left the ground.
Seventy seconds after takeoff from Addis Ababa's Bole International Airport on March 10, one of the angle of attack sensors on board the aircraft began providing faulty information to the aircraft's systems, indicating an imminent stall to the flight crew.
The stick shaker on the pilot's yoke -- another system intended to warn a pilot of an imminent stall -- began shaking the yoke. Incorrectly sensing a stall, the aircraft's system tried to force the nose down four separate times during the flight, in the end overpowering the flight crew's ability to keep the airplane climbing.
Recognizing a problem with the automatic trim, the pilots followed emergency procedures and turned off the system. Instead, the pilots tried to use the backup manual trim wheel to adjust the trim, but the airplane was traveling too fast and the manual trim wheel would have been physically impossible to operate.
Less than two minutes later, Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashed, killing 157 passengers and flight crews.
Polling for a project on party membership - led by Prof Tim Bale of Queen Mary University - was published at the turn of the year.
It suggested more than 70% of Labour's members backed a second referendum.
And if it were held, nearly nine out of 10 would vote to remain in the EU.
But this wasn't a poll of shadow cabinet members.
Nine of Jeremy Corbyn's top team are very, very sceptical of - or opposed to - another referendum.
And most of these are his political allies.
Public vote, private fears
The man he installed as Labour Party chairman - Ian Lavery - is reported to have offered his resignation twice because he broke the party whip and failed to back a referendum in the recent indicative votes. Twice Mr Corbyn refused to accept it.
From a Leave-supporting area in north east England, Mr Lavery is convinced Labour would pay a high political price if it is seen to be disrespecting the result of the 2016 referendum.
It's interesting that the elections co-ordinator, Andrew Gwynne, who is not as close to Mr Corbyn, takes a similar view.
So far, a formulation around the question of a second referendum has just about maintained a show of unity from senior figures in public - though this is now fraying.
The form of words deployed is that Labour would support a "public vote" in order to avoid "a hard Tory Brexit" or "no deal".
But these caveats now worry supporters of a referendum in the party - including some who sit at Mr Corbyn's top table.
The fears are fuelled by the current cross-party talks.
Because if Mr Corbyn was to reach a deal with Theresa May which avoids "a hard Tory Brexit", would the referendum commitment melt away?
Shadow boxing
Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry was so concerned she wrote to shadow cabinet colleagues last night to argue that ditching a public vote on any deal - including one hammered out with the prime minister - would breach party policy and would require a vote of the whole shadow cabinet.
At last night's special meeting of shadow ministers, I am told Ms Thornberry's possible leadership ambitions were aired. (She couldn't be there for family reasons).
Key figures in Mr Corbyn's office were furious at her intervention.
But the party's deputy leader Tom Watson - who doesn't always see eye to eye with the shadow foreign secretary - took to the airwaves to insist: "Our position is we want a confirmatory ballot.
"It's very difficult for us to move off that because I don't think our party would forgive us if we signed off on Tory Brexit without that kind of concession."
Even more uncomfortably for the Labour leader, left-wing allies have written to him to push for a referendum commitment in talks with the prime minister.
The eleven signatories include shadow ministers Clive Lewis and Rachael Maskell.
They wrote: "We - your supporters - urge you to make a confirmatory public vote your bottom line in negotiations with Theresa May and to fight to bring this government down."
Mr Corbyn has said he did raise the "option" of a public vote with Mrs May yesterday and shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said today that a "confirmatory vote" would be discussed at what are being billed as technical discussions between Labour and Conservative frontbenchers.
Meaningful policy?
Behind the scenes there is what to outsiders will look like a "dance on the head of a pin" argument going on as to what Labour's policy actually is on a public vote - but the interpretation could determine how hard, or otherwise, the referendum is pushed in talks.
The motion agreed last autumn at Labour's conference says "should Parliament vote down a Tory Brexit deal, or the talks end in no deal" then there should be a general election.
If that doesn't happen, then "Labour must support all options remaining on the table, including campaigning for a public vote".
Supporters of a referendum say that Mrs May's "Tory Brexit deal" - as represented by two meaningful votes - has been voted down.
So Labour should now be calling unequivocally for a "public vote" on any deal.
Sceptics and opponents stress, on the other hand, that it should still be a last resort to prevent no deal, or another attempt to get Mrs May's unrevised deal over the line.
Divided we stand
So a group of 25 Labour MPs from Leave areas has written to Mr Corbyn urging him to "compromise" in talks with Mrs May.
The group includes the shadow minister Gloria De Piero, and former shadow minister Melanie Onn, who resigned because she voted against the referendum option rather than abstain on an indicative vote.
More familiar supporters of Mrs May's current deal - such as Caroline Flint and Sir Kevin Barron - have added their names too - as has Lisa Nandy, the former frontbencher who has so far held out against the prime minister's deal, but who could be persuaded if it were combined with a customs union.
The signatories say: "Our policy… seeks a deal that protects jobs and rights at work. It does not require a confirmatory ballot on any deal that meets those conditions."
The political hook
But sources close to the Labour leader think the fuss over a referendum is over-blown, as government and opposition are unlikely to agree a joint motion on Brexit in any case.
It's far more likely there will be a series of votes on a range of options - including a referendum - next week.
Peter Kyle, who drafted a motion on the option of a referendum during the phase of indicative votes, is hopeful of success.
His formulation garnered more votes - though not a majority - from MPs than any other option.
But some close to the Labour leadership believe it will, once again, be rejected.
That outcome would get both the prime minister and the opposition leader off a potentially painful political hook.
Moscow -- Venezuela is not going to become "another Syria" for Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a state-backed Russian newspaper in an interview published this week. "We have nothing to hide," he said in response to a question about what Russian troops are doing in the once wealthy South American nation.
Two military planes carrying about 100 Russian personnel arrived in Caracas last week. The influx, which U.S. officials have told CBS News was unusual for its size, has fuelled tensions between Russia and the U.S. that were sparked earlier this year as the two countries picked opposing sides in Venezuela's debilitating political crisis.
The U.S., along with dozens of other countries, has thrown its support behind Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido. The former leader of the National Assembly has declared himself the country's interim president and labelled President Nicolas Maduro a "usurper" following a re-election widely deemed undemocratic. Moscow, however, insists Maduro is still the country's legitimate leader.
According to U.S. officials, the two planeloads of Russian troops were sent to Caracas to support Maduro. The Kremlin claims, however, that they were sent to do maintenance work on military equipment Russia supplied to Venezuela several years ago.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Russian President Vladimir Putin greet each other outside the Novo-Ogaryovo residence in Moscow, Russia, in a Dec. 5, 2018 file photo.
AP
The conversation heated up as President Donald Trump told Russia "to get out," and Russia's Foreign Ministry shot back that the U.S. should get out of Syria first. Russia and the U.S. similarly backed different sides in Syria's civil war, and Russian President Vladimir Putin coming to the rescue has arguably kept dictator Bashar Assad comfortably in power.
On Thursday, Venezuela's deputy foreign minister would not rule out the possibility that more Russian military personnel could arrive in his country, under what he said were existing agreements between the two nations.
Russia does have assets in Venezuela and close ties with the Maduro regime, but defense and foreign affairs analysts see the recent developments much more as a power play by the Kremlin, aimed more at goading the U.S. than defending the Venezuelan leader.
"Harsh confrontation with Washington over Venezuela, according to the Kremlin's logic, boosts Russia's significance in the eyes of the U.S.," foreign affairs analyst Vladimir Frolov told CBS News. "It's political theater, and theater needs proper decorations."
One-way street
Venezuela has been Russia's biggest partner in Latin America since the early 2000s, Tatyana Rusakova, Latin America analyst at the Moscow-based Center for Crisis Society Studies, told CBS News. She said those ties have been largely "a one-way street, and are based on political agenda."
Russia owns two lucrative gas fields just off the Venezuelan coast, through the state-backed oil giant Rosneft.
Moscow has also earned $11.4 billion selling military equipment to Caracas, and currently exports about $70-$80 million per year worth of non-military goods to the country.
All that said, trade with Venezuela accounts for only about 0.01 percent of Russia's foreign trade turnover.
The Kremlin loaned at least $2 billion to Caracas to enable Venezuela to buy the Russian military equipment, and Venezuela still owes Russia $6 billion of a total $17 billion worth of loans handed out since 2006, according a recent Financial Times report.
Given those circumstances, Rusakova said she "wouldn't say that, in terms of trade and economy," Venezuela is a significant Russian partner.
Military cooperation
While Venezuela doesn't account for much overall trade with Russia, 2006 and 2013 Caracas was among the four biggest purchasers of Russian military hardware, and cooperation on that front continues.
Two Russian factories -- one that will make Kalashnikov assault rifles and another that will make ammunition for them -- are currently under construction in Venezuela, according to Konstantin Makienko, deputy director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a Moscow-based defense think-tank.
Makienko, who is also a member of the defense expert council in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, told CBS News in written comments that Moscow also continues to supply parts for equipment sold to Venezuela previously, and carry out vital maintenance work to keep that equipment operational.
That second aspect of the bilateral military cooperation has intensified recently, Makienko noted.
The Russian military also gives Venezuela's military guidance and advice.
"The group of Russian military personnel that arrived (last week) are consulting Venezuelan troops on (military action) in case the U.S. or anyone else carries out a military intervention," Makienko said.
But another analyst says these consultations are likely to be the extent of Russia's military involvement -- there is no incentive for the Russian military to go on the offensive for Maduro, or fight on his behalf.
"Venezuela isn't Russia's military ally, like, say, Belarus or Kazakhstan," Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, told CBS News.
So what's the endgame?
Moscow sees the crisis in Venezuela as another opportunity -- just as Syria was -- to portray itself as a force to be reckoned with -- a force capable of keeping U.S. power in check, according to analyst Frolov.
"The strategy to confront the U.S., wherever it can be done at a reasonable cost, is grounded in the Kremlin's idea of a new world in which the U.S. doesn't have the freedom to overthrow regimes anymore, because Russia is there to stop it," he said.
Venezuela fits the profile perfectly, because undermining Washington's agenda there doesn't require too many resources and offers a chance to retaliate for the 2014 revolution in Ukraine, which brought a U.S.-aligned government to power. The Kremlin believes the revolution was masterminded and orchestrated by the U.S.
"The logic is… that we can also make your life harder in your backyard, just like you did in ours," Frolov said.
A sensor damaged by a bird or debris may have led to the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8, killing all 157 aboard, as a preliminary report released Thursday found that the crew followed proper procedures but were unable to regain control of the doomed plane.
“The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer, but was not able to control the aircraft,” Ethiopian Transport Minister Dagmawit Moges said, citing findings based on the voice and flight data recorders.
In the first official report on the March 10 disaster, Moges called for the MAX 8’s controversial flight control system to be reviewed by Boeing.
“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.
The preliminary findings show the aircraft had a valid certificate of airworthiness, the pilots were licensed and qualified to fly the plane, and its takeoff appeared to be “very normal,” Moges told reporters at a press conference in the capital, Addis Ababa.
Flight 302 went down in clear weather, six minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport en route to Nairobi, Kenya.
Investigators are looking into the role of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, a flight control system known by its acronym, MCAS, which under some situations can automatically lower the plane’s nose to prevent a stall.
The MAX has been grounded worldwide pending a software fix that Boeing is rolling out and that needs approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and other regulators.
Ethiopian investigators did not specifically mention the MCAS on Thursday.
Meanwhile, two aviation sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News that the doomed flight sustained a damaged angle-of-attack sensor upon takeoff from a bird or foreign object, triggering erroneous data and the activation of the anti-stall system.
According to the sources, the crew did not try to electronically pull the nose up before following Boeing’s emergency procedures of cutting power to the horizontal stabilizer on the rear of the plane.
One source told the network they manually tried to raise the nose back up by using the trim wheel. Soon after, the pilots restored power to the horizontal stabilizer.
With the power restored, the MCAS was re-engaged, the sources said, and the pilots failed to regain control before the crash.
But the preliminary findings dispute that there was any foreign object damage, or FOD, to the aircraft.
“We did not find any information regarding the FOD (foreign object damage) on the aircraft,” Amdye Andualem, chairman of the Ethiopian Accident Investigation Bureau, said Thursday. “The data provided by the FDR (flight data recorder) doesn’t indicate that there is an FOD.”
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain could ask the European Union for a long Brexit delay next week if crisis talks between Prime Minister Theresa May’s government and the opposition Labour Party fail to find a way out of the impasse over the divorce from the European Union.
Brexit is now in mired in doubt, nearly three years since the United Kingdom shocked the world by voting 52 percent to 48 to leave the bloc. Supporters fear betrayal and opponents are pushing for another referendum.
May, who has already delayed Brexit once, is now trying to find a way to get a divorce deal approved by courting opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn who wants to agree a much closer post-Brexit economic relationship with the EU.
“The important thing now is that in any extension that we get from the EU, we have an absolute clarity that as soon as we’ve done the deal, we are able to bring that extension to an end,” finance minister Philip Hammond told ITV.
When asked if he was comfortable about a long extension, he said he was not comfortable about it, but that the defeat of May’s deal on Friday, the very day that Britain was due to have left the EU, meant “we are where we are.”
Corbyn, a veteran socialist campaigner whom May has repeatedly derided as unfit for office, said on Wednesday that she had not moved far enough in talks which continued, at a lower level, on Thursday.
Labour’s Brexit point man, Keir Starmer, and Corbyn’s strategy chief, Seumas Milne, were seen entering the Cabinet Office with May’s Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay on Thursday. May’s de-facto deputy, David Lidington, will also attend.
The aim, May’s spokesman said, was to have intensive discussions. A further meeting between May and Corbyn will happen when there is a reason for one, her spokesman said.
Hammond said that if talks failed, the government would present some ideas from the discussions to parliament. Lawmakers may have to sacrifice some of their Easter holidays, the government said.
The Brexit vote exposed deep fractures in British society, though the crisis it triggered has also shown a political system in dire need of reform. It is unclear how, when or if Britain will leave the EU.
BREXIT CHAOS
The chaos has raised fears of a disorderly exit that would shock the British economy, roil financial markets and even hurt global trade. The European Central Bank has warned that markets need to price in a no-deal Brexit.
A pro-Brexit protester demonstrates outside the Houses of Parliament, as Brexit wrangles continue, in London, Britain, April 4, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
Concern about Brexit is slowing the German economy, leading top economic institutes to slash their forecasts for 2019 growth by more than half on Thursday.
The House of Commons on Wednesday approved legislation which would force May to seek a Brexit delay to prevent a no-deal departure on April 12.
“If passed ... this bill would place a severe constraint on the government’s ability to negotiate an extension,” May’s spokesman said.
After more than two years of tortuous discussions about the minutiae of the separation, EU leaders are weary of London’s failure to agree its own divorce and patience is wearing thin.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in Brussels that Britain would not get any further short delays unless its parliament ratified a deal by April 12 - the date set by EU leaders as the effective cut-off for avoiding the European Parliament elections.
The EU is discussing different options: a delay until the end of the year, next Spring or the end of 2020 though in recent days discussions have focused mostly on a one year delay.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet residents who live along the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland during a visit to Dublin on Thursday to discuss Brexit to learn what impact any return of frontier checks would have on their lives.
Slideshow (18 Images)
Merkel will use her trip to meet Prime Minister Leo Varadkar to consider the border situation and how to prevent a no-deal “hard Brexit”.
UBS Wealth Management said it was unlikely the parliamentary deadlock would be broken in the near term so a long extension to the divorce window, known as Article 50, was likely.
“Failure to secure the passage of the Withdrawal Agreement in the coming days would result in a long extension to Article 50,” UBS said. “This extension will be granted by the EU27, with conditions.”
Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; additional reporting by William Schomberg; Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels and Paul Carrell in Berlin, Editing by William Maclean
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 repeatedly nosedived despite the pilots following proper procedures, Ethiopia’s minister of transport said in the initial news briefing for the crash investigation Thursday, according to reports.
The Boeing 737 Max 8 jet crashed March 10 just after takeoff en route from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Nairobi, Kenya, killing all 157 passengers and crew aboard.
“The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer but was not able to control the aircraft,” Dagmawit Moges said at the news conference in Addis Ababa.
The investigation has also found the plane was in good condition and airworthy before the doomed flight.
Based on flight data and cockpit voice recordings, Moges said they cannot yet determine if there is a structural problem with the Max 8.
She said they are recommending that U.S.-based Boeing review the jet’s air flight control system for controllability issues.
“Despite their hard work and full compliance with the emergency procedures,” Ethiopian Airlines said in a statement Thursday, “it was very unfortunate that they could not recover the airplane from the persistence of nose diving.”
The similarities between the crash and the previous crash of a Lion Air Max 8 plane led to the U.S. joining several other countries in grounding the planes pending further investigation.
An international team of 18 agencies is helping with the investigation. American participants include the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration, according to Reuters.
