Investigators on Friday reportedly found a piece of a stabilizer among the wreckage of the fatal Ethiopian Airline crash with its trim set in an unusual position akin to that of a Lion Air plane that crashed last year.
Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that investigators found the stabilizer, which moves the jet’s horizontal tail. The find could help determine whether it was set nose down for a steep dive.
ETHIOPIA TO SEND CRASHED BOEING 737 MAX 8 AIRCRAFT'S BLACK BOX TO EUROPE FOR ANALYSIS
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Wednesday that new information from the site of the Ethiopian jet’s crash, which killed all 157 people on board, and recently refined data on its flight path shared similarities with the Lion Air tragedy, the outlet reported. As previously reported, both accidents involved Boeing Co 737 MAX planes.
Several countries have grounded the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft models. The FAA on Wednesday temporarily grounded all 737 MAX 8 and 9 models in the U.S.
The FAA has not publicly released the details of its findings from the Ethiopian wreckage.
Parts of the plane wreckage with rescue workers at the crash site at Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, March 11, 2019, where Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 crashed Sunday. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian Airlines’ black boxes that were delivered Thursday to a French air accident investigation authority, known by its French acronym BEA, have yet to be opened or examined, a source who spoke to American investigators told Fox News.
American investigators left the facility after arguments broke out over how the protocols for examination, custody and cooperation among the investigators, laid out in the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) section 13, were being ignored, the source said.
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The source also said the accident site itself was compromised because it was not secured quickly enough, allowing local to ransack it.
Fox News' Doug McKelway contributed to this report.