Boeing 737 MAX crash: Ethiopia set to release preliminary report

— As Saudi ban continues

Preliminary report into the cause of an Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people in March is to be released by Ethiopia.

The incident led to worldwide grounding of U.S. plane maker Boeing’s top-selling 737 MAX jet.

The report will be closely examined for clues to any similarities between the March 10 accident and a Lion Air crash in October, also involving a 737 MAX that killed 189 people.

The stakes are high, with Boeing trying to hold on to nearly 5,000 MAX 737 orders; air safety regulators facing questions over their scrutiny of the aircraft and airlines and victims’ families looking for answers and potentially compensation.

Liability claims related to the Ethiopian crash and 737 MAX grounding could be the largest aviation reinsurance claim outside of war on record, broker Willis Re said on Monday.

Separately, Norwegian Air said its Chief Executive Bjoern Kjos would travel to meet Boeing in Seattle on Monday.

Norwegian, which has 18 737 MAX 8 in its fleet and is scheduled to take delivery of 12 more in the coming months and years, said

They also said in March they had sought compensation from Boeing over the grounding.

Ethiopia’s foreign ministry spokesman Nebiyat Getachew said the preliminary crash report would be released by the ministry of transport on Monday, although a time had not yet been set.

Flight 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi crashed six minutes after take-off.

Citizens of over 30 nations were on board.

Three people briefed on the matter told Reuters on Friday that an anti-stall system at the centre of a probe into the Lion Air 737 MAX crash was also at play in the Ethiopian accident.

“Data pulled from the Ethiopian Airlines flight recorder suggest the so-called MCAS system, which pushes the nose of the jet downwards, had been activated before the plane plunged to the ground, the people said.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity, ahead of the interim official report.

That was the second related piece of evidence to emerge from the black boxes of the Ethiopian flight after an initial sample of data recovered by investigators in Paris suggested similar “angle of attack” readings to the Lion Air crash.

These initial airflow readings from the Ethiopian jet, first reported by Reuters, refer to stall-related information needed to trigger the automated nose-down MCAS system.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said it has no immediate plans to allow Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to operate in the kingdom according to country’s transport minister on Monday as state airline fly deal potentially reconsiders an order for the jets.

Boeing’s top-selling MAX has been grounded globally since last month after two fatal crashes involving the same model in five months, the first in Indonesia in October and another on March 10 in Ethiopia.

“There were no 737 MAX flying in the kingdom at the time and there aren’t plans for them to be back in the near future,” minister Nabeel al-Amudi told reporters at an aviation conference in Riyadh.

Budget carrier flyadeal has said it’s waiting until investigations into the two crashes are completed before deciding if it proceeds with an order for 30 MAX jets.

The order, which includes purchasing operations for 20 more of the same aircraft, is worth 5.9 billion dollars at list prices, according to Boeing.

Attention has focused on the anti-stall system, which is believed to have repeatedly forced the nose lower in at least one of the crashes.

The system pushes the plane’s nose down if it believes it is ascending at too steep an angle.

Boeing last week said it had reprogrammed software on its 737 MAX to prevent erroneous data from triggering an anti-stall system.

Saudi Arabia will follow the global aviation industry in any recertification of the MAX, Amudi said.