Investigations indicate that shortly after V1 speed (V1 is the speed beyond which take-off can no longer be aborted) the crew of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 experienced difficulties and requested permission to return to the airport.
The flight 302 was climbing out when the aircraft leveled out at about 9,000ft above sea level. Radar contact was lost about 6 minutes later. The picture of the crash site indicated a high speed impact with the aircraft disintegrating when it hit the ground, and post crash fire.
Flight radar 24 was able to capture the first 6 minutes of the aircraft’s ADSB (Automatic Dependence Surveillance Broadcast) data as the aircraft departed to the east.
The standard instrument departure to the east requires the aircraft to be at 12,000ft but it was at 9,000ft. This indicates that the aircraft was below the desired altitude, thus putting the aircraft within 1,000ft of the mountainous terrain.
The aircraft rolled out on the runway and climbed into the sky at rate of 2,000ft per minute, and it quickly drops off to ZERO ft per minute, followed by another positive climb and another negative descent of 2000ft per minute, followed by another positive climb to about 7,000ft in 3 minutes before losing contact with the radar.
An altitude of just 1,000 to 2,000 feet above the ground, gives the crew very limited time and space to react if there is a controllability problem.
It is too early to say what exactly caused the crash, but watching as the crew struggled to keep the aircraft in the air and the chaos in the cabin as Flight 302 nosedive back to terra ferma into a giant crater is gut-wrenching
Below is a video being circulated as the footage of the tragic incident and the credibility has not been verified by Ethiopian Airlines.
However, several comments have indicated that the video is either an old footage or a manipulated video, below are some reactions culled from our Facebook Page:
- Aimar Ahmad: The inside plane records is video game, and outside one isn’t the Ethiopian flight 302, idiots people where educated
- Jason Osayamen: That’s a Boeing 747. Nd a 737max
- Simon Ortega: Very old vef, mechewwwee
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