Ethiopian Airlines black boxes to be sent overseas as investigation continues

Demand for answers grows as more authorities ban the use of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft

Family members and friends hug at the scene where the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed shortly after takeoff on Sunday killing all 157 on board. AP

Family members cry at the scene where the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed shortly after takeoff on Sunday. AP

Members of a Chinese family mourn their son who died in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash after a commemoration ceremony at the scene of the crash. Reuters

Chinese family and friends mourn victims of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash during a commemoration ceremony at the scene of the crash. Reuters

A Chinese man mourns a victim of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash during a commemoration ceremony at the scene of the crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Reuters

Chinese friends mourn a victim of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash. Reuters

Forensic investigators and recovery teams collect personal belongings and other material from the crash site of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 in Bishoftu, Ethiopia. Getty Images

Members of the Ethiopian red cross search for remains at the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash before a commemoration ceremony at the scene of the crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Reuters

Forensic investigators and recovery teams collect personal belongings and other material from the crash site. Getty Images

Forensic investigators and recovery teams collect personal belongings and other material from the crash site. Getty Images

Forensic investigators and recovery teams collect personal belongings and other material from the crash site. Getty Images

Forensic investigators and recovery teams collect personal belongings and other material from the crash site. Getty Images

Investigators with the US National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) look over debris at the crash site. Getty Images

Investigators with the NTSB look over debris at the crash site. Getty Images

A foreign investigator examines wreckage. AP Photo

Crime scene investigators from various countries who lost citizens on the doomed flight inspect the crash site. Getty Images

Investigators with the NTSB look over debris at the crash site. Getty Images

Investigators with the NTSB look over debris at the crash site. Getty Images

American civil aviation and Boeing investigators search through the debris. Reuters

American civil aviation and Boeing investigators arrive to the crash site. Reuters

Wreckage lies at the scene where the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed. AP Photo

Ethiopian police tries to block an American family from laying flowers for their daughter, who died in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash. Reuters

Family members hug each other at the scene where the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed shortly after takeoff on Sunday. AP

Grieving families on Wednesday visited the site of the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people, as the airline said it would send the black boxes from the plane to France for analysis.

And Ethiopian Airlines chief executive Tewolde Gebremariam said the pilots told air-traffic control that they were having problems controlling the plane before the crash.

The ban on the Boeing 737 Max aircraft became worldwide late on Wednesday after US President Donald Trump joined Canada and other countries in grounding the aircraft amid mounting global fears for the jets' airworthiness.

US authorities said new evidence showed similarities between Sunday's deadly crash and a fatal accident in Indonesia in October.

Distraught relatives of those who died carried pictures of their loved ones as they visited the site, 62 kilometres south-east of Addis Ababa.

They laid wreaths of blooming yellow roses and held each other as they wept in the arid farmland where the plane crashed.

Two black boxes were recovered from the crash site on Monday, one holding voice recordings and other digital data.

Mr Gebremariam told CNN the black boxes would be sent to Europe "in the interest of proximity and speed".

Data from the black box will be all-important to investigations into the incident, Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at StrategicAero Research, told The National.

The voice record will have conversations between the cockpit and the control towers, while the data recorder will have details such as the aircraft's speed, height, weight, stresses and performance, Mr Ahmad said.

Two American agencies – the Federal Aviation Authority and National Transport Safety Board – are assisting Ethiopia with the investigation, along with plane maker Boeing.

As the "state of occurrence", Ethiopia will lead the investigation, said Graham Braithwaite, a professor of safety and accident investigation at Cranfield University in the UK.

But Prof Braithwaite said more agencies might join the investigation.

"If there are particular skills that may come from another state or any other agency – for example, a university – then it is appropriate that the investigator in charge can invite them to participate," he said.

Prof Braithwaite said it was not unusual for the black boxes to be sent overseas because some countries did not have the equipment to analyse the data.

"Aircraft accident investigation depends on international collaboration, all with the common goal of improving flight safety," he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said findings from the crash site near Addis Ababa and "newly refined satellite data" warranted "further investigation of the possibility of a shared cause for the two incidents."

An FAA emergency order grounded 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft until further notice.

Mr Trump said at the White House the "safety of the American people and all peoples is our paramount concern".

FAA acting chief Daniel Elwell said the agency has been "working tirelessly" to find the cause of the accident but faced delays because the black box flight data recorders had been damaged.

The new information shows "the track of that airplane was close enough to the track of the Lion Air flight... to warrant the grounding of the airplanes so we could get more information from the black boxes and determine if there's a link between the two, and if there is, find a fix to that link," Mr Elwell said on CNBC.

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The world's Boeing 737 Max 8 fleet

Aerolineas Argentinas has temporarily suspended operations of its five Max 8 aircraft. Reuters

Aeromexico. The Mexican airline said it suspended the operation of its six MAX 8 planes and those flights would be covered by the rest of its fleet. Marian Lockhart / Boeing

American carriers such as American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United are still operating its Max 8 fleets. Reuters

Brazilian carrier GOL Linhas Aereas has grounded 7 planes Corbis

Cayman Airways has grounded its two jets. Marian Lockhart / Boeing

Chinese carriers like China Southern Airlines have grounded their Max 8 aircraft. Reuters

Chinese carriers like Air China have grounded their Max 8 aircraft. EPA

Chinese carriers like Hainan Airlines have grounded their Max 8 aircraft.

Shanghai Airlines have grounded their Max 8 aircraft. AP Photo

Canadian carriers like Air Canada and WestJet are still flying the Max 8. AP Photo

Ethiopian Airlines, the carrier at the centre of the Boeing 737 Max 8 crisis, has grounded its fleet. AP Photo

Fiji Airways are flying their Max 8 aircraft. Courtesy Fiji Airways

Icelandair has grounded its active fleet. Jim Anderson / Boeing

Lion Air and fellow Indonesian carrier Garuda Indonedia have their Boeing 737 Max jets grounded. AFP Photo

Norwegian budget carrier 'Norwegian' has grounded 18 jets. EPA

A Jet Airways Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircarft. India has closed its airspace affecting Jet and SpiceJet. Reuters.

India said it will ground MAX aircraft. SpiceJet Ltd has 12 MAX 8s. Craig Larson photo

Royal Air Maroc has temporarily grounded its 737 Max aircraft. Paul C Gordon / Boeing

Oman has suspended 737 Max operations in and out of the country. This affects Oman Air which has five aircrafy. Bloomberg

LOT, the Polish Airlines carrier, has grounded five jets. Alamy

Singapore's SilkAir has grounded six aircraft. AP Photo

South Korean airline Eastar Jet has grounded two planes.

Leisure carrier TUI will ground 16 aircraft. AP Photo

Turkish Airlines said it had suspended its 12 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. It operates 11 Max 8 and a Max 9 aircraft. AFP

Flydubai has grounded 15 planes - 12 Max 8s and 3 Max 9s. Courtesy Anna Zvereva

Also - Russian S7 Airlines said it would ground its two MAX 8 planes starting Wednesday and that the decision would not affect its flight schedules. South African British Airways's Comair has grounded its Max 8 plane and Canadian holiday carrier Sunwing is suspending its four jets.

Mr Gebremariam said speculation about the safety of the aircraft was not helpful but there were "questions without answers".

He said there were "very significant similarities" between the Ethiopian Airlines crash and that of Lion Air.

Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashed six minutes after taking off on Sunday morning, killing 149 passengers and eight crew from 35 different countries.

The flight, bound for Nairobi, was carrying delegates to a UN conference on the environment in the Kenyan capital.