Ethiopian Airlines plane had flight control problems, airline CEO says

The pilots of the doomed Ethiopian Airlines flight told air traffic control they were having “flight control problems” before the crash, airline CEO Tewolde GebreMariam told CNN’s Richard Quest Tuesday.

That suggests the plane was not responding to pilots’ inputs and they were losing control of the aircraft, Quest explains.

GebreMariam said the flight data recorders “will be sent overseas,” rather than being read in Ethiopia, which does not have the technical capability to do it. He did not say where, specifically, they would be read.

Pilots were aware of airworthiness directive issued after the Lion Air crash in October and had had additional training, he said.

Pilots of Ethiopian Airlines told air traffic control they were having “flight control problems,” reports @questCNN.

"This will be extremely worrying because that is exactly what was happening with Lion Air." https://t.co/ANlKn7bGwV pic.twitter.com/pkqIojrm0W

— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) March 12, 2019