2009 airliner crash probe only told half story: Report

The 2009 crash of a Boeing jetliner operated by Turkish Airlines bears uncanny similarities to the crashes of two Boeing aircraft last year that left 346 people dead and forced the American aerospace titan to ground an entire fleet.

The crash of a Boeing 737 NG, or Next Generation, Max airplane near Amsterdam and the crashes of the 2019 flights in Indonesia and Ethiopia all included the failure of a single sensor that led to cascading computer errors, according to a review obtained by the New York Times.
Boeing also failed to provide pilots with information that could have been critical to preventing the tragedies.

The 2009 crash "represents such a sentinel event that was never taken seriously," Sidney Dekker, an aviation safety expert who was commissioned by the Dutch Safety Board to analyze the crash, told the newspaper.

Dekker's review pointed the finger squarely at Boeing who he said sought to shield its "design shortcomings," by seeking to place blame on the pilots who it said should have been more attentive.

Dekker's findings went unpublished by the Dutch Safety Board, which either erased or "amended" its findings in the face of pushback from an American team that included Boeing representatives and U.S. safety officials.

Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 crashed on approach to Amsterdam's main international airport. The pilots were asked by air traffic control to carry out a difficult landing maneuver that included slowing the aircraft while descending more quickly than would be typical.

The pilots had not yet completed their landing checklist, and should have circled around for another approach in-line with airline procedure, according to the Times, which also noted that violations were "commonplace" at the airport...