Addis Ababa, (FBC) – Ethiopian Airlines disclosed that it will sue two US-based newspapers, The New York Times and Washington Post, for publishing baseless defamatory stories.
The New York Times alleged that the Ethiopian pilot who crashed B-737-8 MAX Boeing Max 8 “didn’t receive training”, while the Washington Post too carried “baseless and factually incorrect” allegations.
Briefing the press today, Ethiopian Group CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said “we are ready to take all the necessary legal measures on those media institutions.”
The airline is assessing the status of the journalists, particularly the one who reported for The New York Times, he added.
Tewolde stressed that both stories published by the newspapers are definitely false, defamatory and baseless items fabricated to damage the image of the country in general and the airline in particular.
The fake stories are concocted to divert the attention from the global grounding of the B-737 MAX airplanes, he noted.
Ethiopian Airlines pilots have completed Boeing recommended and FAA approved different training from the B-737 NG aircraft to the B-737 MAX aircraft before the phase in of the B-737-8 MAX fleet to the Ethiopian operation and before they started flying the B-737-8 MAX.
Tewolde elaborated that the content of the airworthiness directive has also been well incorporated in all pilot training manuals, operational procedures and working manuals.
The airline has seven full flight simulators (Q-400, B-737NG, B-737 MAX, B-767, B-787, B-777 and A-350) to train its pilots and other airlines pilots.
Ethiopian Airlines has one of the largest and most modern aviation academy with training devices and technologies among the very few in the world, the CEO revealed.
Although the cause of the accident is yet to be known by the international investigation in progress, the entire world knows all B-737 MAX airplanes have been grounded since the tragic accident of ET 302, according to ENA.
Source: fanabc.com
