The Ethiopian Airlines crash and the Lion Air crash are being compared as they both involved a Boeing 737 Max 8, but we already know of one major difference between the two air disasters.
The CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde GebreMariam, said that the plane, which killed all 157 on board when it crashed on Sunday, did not have any known technical issues and that there were no previous reports of issues.
GebreMariam told reporters on Monday that "the routine maintenance check didn't reveal any problems," CNN reported.
In contrast, the Lion Air plane, which killed all 189 people on board when it crashed into the Java Sea in October 2018, had experienced technical problems.
The plane experienced out-of-control conditions on its previous flight, leaving passengers vomiting and panicking.
Nurcahyo Utomo, the aviation head at Indonesia's National Transport Safety Committee, said at the launch of a preliminary report into the crash that Lion Air had checked the jet and carried out some maintenance procedures in response to the problems before clearing it for takeoff for the fatal flight.
But Utomo said the airline should never have let it fly. He said "in our opinion, the plane was no longer airworthy and it should not have continued" after problems on its last flight the day before.
The preliminary report did not state that the plane was not airworthy, but it did outline technical problems with the plane.
Read more: The Lion Air plane that crashed into the sea was 'no longer airworthy,' Indonesian officials say
Investigations into the cause of the Lion Air crash are still ongoing, and Ethiopian Airlines said it could not rule anything out as a cause until an investigation into Sunday's crash is complete.
GebreMariam said on Monday: "As it is a fresh incident, we have not been able to determine the cause. As I said, it is a brand new airplane with no technical remarks, flown by a senior pilot and there is no cause that we can attribute at this time."
The latest development in the Ethiopian Airlines crash came on March 17, when Ethiopian transport ministry spokesman Muse Yiheyis said preliminary data from the black box indicates "clear similarities between the two crashes."
The similarities would be "subject to further investigation," he said, and a preliminary report would be released within 30 days.
Both crashes involved new Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft
Both the Ethiopian Airlines and the Lion Air crashes involved new Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. The Lion Air plane was delivered just two months before the crash, while the Ethiopian Airlines plane was delivered only in November 2018.
The Associated Press reported that investigators would look into the plane's maintenance records and that its last maintenance was on February 4, 2018. The AP said the plane had flown a total of 1,200 hours.
Boeing said it has no plans to issue any new recommendations about the aircraft to customers, and the US's top air-safety regulator said the plane model is safe to fly.
But a number of airlines and countries have grounded the plane model after the latest crash, including Australia on Tuesday.
Boeing said it plans to send a technical team to the crash site to help investigators. It said in a statement that it was "deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew" on the aircraft.
