Ethiopia's transport minister said that information from the flight data recorder on the Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed last week shows "clear similarities" with the crash of the same type of plane in Indonesia in October.
Dagmawit Moges told journalists that the condition of the "black boxes" - the data
and voice record was good and that enough data had been recovered that her ministry's Accident Investigation Bureau would release a preliminary report on what happened to Flight 302 in just 30 days.
"During the investigation of the FDR (flight data recorder) clear similarities were noted between Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610, which will be subject of further investigation," Dagmawit said.
Initial data from the doomed Ethiopian Airlines flight as well as subsequent satellite information recovered showed an erratic flight path during the six minutes that the plane was in the air before it crashed into farmer's field outside the capital, Addis Ababa, on March 10, killing all 157 aboard.
The plane ascended and descended and then ascended again, all the while flying at speeds well in excess of normal takeoff procedure. The pilot, Yared Getachew, was considered very experienced, with more than 8000 hours of flying time.
