An aerial photo shows Boeing 737 MAX aircraft at Boeing facilities at the Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Washington, September 16, 2019.
SEATTLE - Ethiopian Airlines' former chief engineer says in a whistleblower complaint filed with regulators that the carrier went into maintenance records on a Boeing 737 Max jet after it crashed this year, a breach he contends was part of a pattern of corruption that included routinely signing off on shoddy repairs.
Yonas Yeshanew, who is seeking asylum in the U.S., says that while it is unclear what, if anything, was altered, the decision to go into records that should have been sealed reflects an airline with plenty to hide.
Yeshanew is the latest insider urging investigators to take a closer look at human factors in the Max saga and not just focus on Boeing's anti-stall system, which has been widely blamed for two crashes.
Ethiopian Airlines has emphatically denied Yeshanew's allegations, calling him a disgruntled worker out for revenge.