"Bloomberg News" said that the Ethiopian investigators initially concluded that a Boeing 737 MAX crash last year was caused by the design of the aircraft.
Citing a draft report being circulated among the participants in the investigation, she added that these results say little or nothing at all about the performance of Ethiopian Airlines or the flight crew, and that this raised concern among some of the participants in the investigation. She said that the US National Transportation Safety Authority, which received a copy of the draft initial report, may request amendments or provide a contrary opinion.
Boeing, the National Transportation Safety Authority and the Ethiopian Airlines did not respond to a request for comment. The Ethiopian Ministry of Transport could not be reached.
A preliminary report on the accident, published by the Ethiopian authorities in April last year, said that a wrong reading of the sensors and numerous automatic orders that made the front of the plane heading downwards had contributed to the bloody accident.
The Boeing 737 MAX plane was halted globally about a year ago, after two crashes of the same aircraft in Indonesia and Ethiopia, killing 346 people.