BREAKING NEWS

Ethiopian crash report likely to be released this week

A preliminary report on an Ethiopian Airlines crash will very likely be released this week, the country's transport ministry said on Tuesday, as Boeing prepares to brief more airlines on software and training updates on the 737 MAX.
The aviation industry and grieving families of victims of the March 10 crash are anxiously awaiting details from the Ethiopia-led investigation.
Boeing has come under intense scrutiny since the crash, the second in five months involving its new 737 MAX 8 model.
The MAX software is among the leading areas of focus for investigations into the two crashes -- in Ethiopia this month and in Indonesia last year -- in which 346 lives were lost.
Boeing is this week briefing airlines on software and training updates for the MAX, with more than 200 global airline pilots, technical experts and regulators due in Renton, Washington, where the plane is built.
Any fixes to the MAX software must still get approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration and eventually from governments around the world, a process that could take months.
The 737 MAX is Boeing's best-selling plane, with orders worth more than $500 billion at list prices. Within less than a week after the Ethiopian crash, the jets were grounded globally.
China's civil aviation regulator has stopped taking applications for MAX 8 airworthiness certification, an official from the regulator said on Tuesday.