Ethiopian Airlines’ Chief Executive Officer Tewolde Gebremariam was either unequivocally supportive or a master manipulator of words in recent statements about Boeing.
Addressing the two-week mark since the crash of ET 302, Gebremariam stated:
Let me be clear: Ethiopian Airlines believes in Boeing. They have been a partner of ours for many years. More than two-thirds of our fleet is Boeing. We were the first African airline to fly the 767, 757, 777-200LR, and we were the second nation in the world (after Japan) to take delivery of the 787 Dreamliner. Less than a month ago, we took delivery of yet another new two 737 cargo planes…Despite the tragedy, Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines will continue to be linked well into the future.
He later added:
We resolve to work with Boeing and others to use this tragedy to make the skies safer for the world.
You can read the full statement here.
First, let me put on my legal hat. The plain language of Gebremariam’s remarks suggests that Ethiopian and Boeing will remain close partners, even if the ET 302 investigation concludes that Boeing is at fault for the crash.
But the language conveniently leaves plenty of wiggle room, doesn’t it?
“Let me be clear: Ethiopian Airlines believes in Boeing,” can mean a couple of things. Sure, it can meet that Ethiopian does not doubt Boeing. But it could also mean something as innocuous as Ethiopian believes that Boeing exists.
When Gebremariam says, “Despite the tragedy, Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines will continue to be linked well into the future,” he doesn’t actually say how they will be linked. It could just be via a lawsuit…
Now I actually don’t think that is what was meant; I do not think weasel words were intended. But I cannot help but to admire the careful wording of the statement and note that it actually means very little.
Gebremariam also mentioned something I was not aware of it: TWA helped to build Ethiopian Airlines:
We also are proud of our association with U.S. aviation. The general public does not know that Ethiopian Airlines was founded in 1945 with help from Trans World Airlines (TWA). In the early years, our pilots, flight crews, mechanics and managers were actually employees of TWA.
If anything, this suggests a loyalty to the USA which will factor into long-term, strategic decisions concerning Boeing.
CONCLUSION
Maybe I’m the only one, but I appreciated Gebremariam’s statement for how long it took to say very little in the area of concrete assurances about Boeing. But Gebremariam is smart to hedge his bets.
image: Ethiopian
You’re ready too much into it. They have two choices for aircrafts. One has been, and will continue to be, Boeing.
If off hand remarks made by an official carried legal weight Trump would be in jail a serving as someone’s bitch.
I’m glad Ethiopian does — I don’t.
If these two crashes end up being due to MCAS *and* the MCAS algorithms and design are as shoddy as I’m hearing reports of, I seriously question the design of the rest of the aircraft. Seriously, how did they get it so wrong?
Even my 2018 CAR handled a situation like this this better earlier this year. The encoder on my car’s gas pedal started putting out erroneous data. When I went to accelerate, the car shuddered, stopped accelerating, then when I took my foot off the pedal and tried again, it accelerated albeit more slowly and requiring more pedal input than usual. The car’s screens started scrolling error and status messages as the car started shutting off all of the automated systems, setting them to INOPERATIVE. “Accelerator pedal input IMPROBABLE” was the actual error. The car’s systems knew well enough that you can’t go directly from 0% to 20% without 5%, 10%, 15% steps in-between, recognized this, and went to a fail-safe setup, which included shutting off and locking out all of the automation. How come a $100k luxury car can do this, but a $100M Boeing aircraft can’t?
Fortunately, most of the 737 is a tried (tired?) and true 50-year-old design by people who knew how to use slide rules, so they probably are designed correctly.
Imperialism at its best! Even FBI and US congress didn’t believe in Boeing, but ethiopian did! Is it money really talks, or money and guns? Lol
A rush job in this case led to oversights with tragic consequences:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/23/business/boeing-737-max-crash.html