JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Former Indonesian first lady Ani Yudhoyono has died in Singapore. She was 66.
Singapore's Foreign Ministry in a statement of condolences says Yudhoyono passed away on Saturday morning.
She was the wife of Indonesia's sixth President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
She had been treated for cancer at National University Hospital in Singapore for several months.
She is survived by her husband, two sons and grandchildren.
The head of Boeing acknowledged Wednesday that the company "clearly fell short" in dealing with the accident-ridden 737 Max and said that it had not adequately communicated with regulators.
Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg's remarks to CBS News – his first interview since the global grounding of the plane following two crashes that claimed 346 lives – came as a top airline representative signalled that the top-selling jets could be out of service at least through mid to late August.
The crashes happened in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
Muilenburg was pressed by CBS about failing to notify the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for more than a year that the company had deactivated a signal designed to advise the crew of a disagreement between the plane's "angle of attack" sensors, which measure its angle vis-a-vis oncoming air to warn of impending stalls.
The sensors provide data to the Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), a flight handling system connected to the deadly crashes of Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines Maxs.
The FAA did not learn of the issue until after the Lion Air crash, more than 13 months after Boeing first unearthed the problem.
The design of the MCAS has been criticised by aviation experts because it is tied to just one sensor at a time, making it susceptible to malfunction.
In both of the Max crashes, the MCAS pointed the plane sharply downward based on a faulty sensor reading, hindering the pilots' effort to control the aircraft after take-off, according to preliminary crash investigations.
SHORTCOMINGS
Muilenburg, who has repeatedly rejected suggestions of a design flaw in the 737 Max, acknowledged implementation shortcomings.
"The implementation of this angle of attack alert was a mistake," he told CBS.
"Our communication on that was not what it should have been."
But Muilenburg, who also issued a sweeping apology to the families of flight victims during the interview, said he believes in the plane and would have no reservations putting his family aboard.
"We're confident in the fundamental safety of the airplane," he said.
REGULATORS MEETING
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A former Fulbright scholar who has been fighting deportation to his native Indonesia left the sanctuary of a Connecticut church Friday after 598 days.
Sujitno Sajuti had been living inside Meriden's Unitarian Universalist church with his wife, Dahlia, since being ordered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2017 to board a plane.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who accompanied Sajuti as he walked out the front door of the church, said federal authorities have determined that Sajuti was once a victim of a violent crime and therefore qualified for a U visa that will allow him to stay in the United States.
"It is fitting that during this third and final stage of Ramadan, salvation from hell, I'm leaving from a long period of confinement and am finally free to join my community," Sajuti said.
Neither he nor Blumenthal elaborated on the crime, though Blumenthal said Hartford police provided federal officials with the evidence.
"The triumph today is really a lesson from Sujitno and his family," said Blumenthal, a Democrat. "Never give up. Never back down. Never give up, because the fight is worth it."
Sajuti came to the United States in 1981 on a Fulbright Scholarship, earning advanced degrees from Columbia University and the University of Connecticut. The West Hartford resident overstayed his student visa and remained in the United States.
He has said he has registered with immigration officials since 2001.
A former Fulbright scholar who has been fighting deportation to his native Indonesia is leaving the sanctuary of a Connecticut church after 598 days.
Sujitno Sajuti (suh-JEET'-no saw-JEHW'-tee) has been living inside Meriden's Unitarian Universalist church since being ordered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2017 to board a plane.
Rev. Jan Carlsson-Bull, the church's minister, says ICE officials have informed the 70-year-old Sajuti that they are no longer seeking his deportation.
The West Hartford resident came to the United States in 1981 on a Fulbright Scholarship, earning advanced degrees from Columbia University and the University of Connecticut. He overstayed his student visa and remained in the United States.
Church leaders say they will accompany Sajuti to ICE offices Friday afternoon to have his ankle bracelet removed.
The head of Boeing has described the fatal crashes of two of its aircraft as a “defining moment” for the company.
Speaking to CBS television, Dennis Muilenburg said sorry to the families of the 346 people killed in separate disasters within months of each other in Ethiopia and Indonesia.
“I do personally apologise to the families… we feel terrible about these accidents,” he said.
In April, a few weeks after the Ethiopia Airlines crash, Muilenburg had said sorry on behalf of the company.
That apology was “too little, too late” for the pilot’s father, Getachew Tessema.
Both the Ethiopian and Indonesian crashes involved the 737 Max model, Boeing’s most lucrative aircraft.
Its anti-stall system has been identified as the common factor in both crashes. All the planes have been grounded since the Ethiopia Airlines disaster in March and are unlikely to fly again before August.
In the interview, reiterated his company’s commitment to safety.
DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian police in Bali have arrested an American, two Spaniards and two Russians for selling cocaine on the island.
Police paraded the three men and two women at a press conference on Friday.
Denpasar police chief Ruddi Setiawan said the first arrest was on May 20 when a 33-year-old Russian man was caught negotiating cocaine sales to foreign tourists by phone.
Indonesia has strict drug laws and dozens of convicted smugglers are on death row. Its last executions were in July 2016, when an Indonesian and three foreigners were killed by firing squad.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Ratings agency Standard & Poor's said Friday it has upgraded Indonesia's sovereign credit rating following the election of Joko Widodo to a second term as president.
The organization said the upgrade reflects Indonesia's strong economic growth prospects, which "we expect to remain following the reelection of Joko Widodo recently."
The long-term rating was increased to BBB from BBB minus and potentially makes it easier for the government to borrow abroad and at lower interest rates.
Official results last week confirmed Widodo won 55.5% of the vote in the April 17 election. His opponent Prabowo Subianto has alleged massive fraud but not provided any credible evidence. The Subianto campaign has submitted a Constitutional Court challenge to the election result.
"Although this dispute and isolated pockets of unrest associated with it add some uncertainty to Indonesia's political settings over the near term, we do not expect it to have a material impact on the long-term policy environment or economic outlook," S&P said.
Seven people were killed in what police said was orchestrated rioting in the capital Jakarta last week following announcement of the official results.
The ratings agency said Indonesia's per capital economic growth has averaged 4.1% over the past decade compared with an average of 2.2% for countries at a similar income level.
Analysts forecast the country, the world's fourth most populous, to be among the biggest economies by 2030.
President Donald Trump and his acting defense secretary distanced themselves from an order to keep a warship rededicated in honor of the late Sen. John McCain, a frequent critic of Trump , out of sight during the commander in chief's recent visit to Japan.
The Pentagon's acting chief, Patrick Shanahan, said he never authorized attempts to make sure Trump would not see the USS John S. McCain at its homeport in Japan and has asked his staff to investigate. Trump said he was not involved in the matter.
Trump, who long feuded with McCain , told reporters at the White House Thursday that he "was not a big fan" of the Arizona Republican and onetime presidential nominee "in any way, shape or form." But, Trump added, "I would never do a thing like that.
"Now, somebody did it because they thought I didn't like him, OK? And they were well-meaning, I will say," he said, while insisting he was kept in the dark.
The order that a Navy destroyer be kept out of sight reflected what appeared to be an extraordinary White House effort to avoid offending an unpredictable president known for holding a grudge, including a particularly bitter one against McCain.
Three U.S. officials confirmed to The Associated Press that the White House told the Navy to keep the warship named for McCain, his father and his grandfather out of Trump's sight during Trump's visit Tuesday to a base outside Tokyo.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official wrote an email to Navy and Air Force officials about Trump's Memorial Day weekend visit, including instructions for preparations for the USS Wasp, where he was to speak.
"USS John McCain needs to be out of sight," according to the email, obtained by the Journal and whose existence was confirmed to the AP by the three U.S. officials. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private email correspondence.
President Donald Trump and his acting defense secretary distanced themselves Thursday from an order to keep a warship rededicated in honor of the late Sen. John McCain, a Trump thorn , out of sight during the commander in chief's recent visit to Japan.
The Pentagon's acting chief, Patrick Shanahan, said he never authorized attempts to make sure Trump would not see the USS John S. McCain at its homeport in Japan and would have his chief of staff investigate. Trump said he was not involved in the matter.
Trump, who long feuded with McCain , told reporters at the White House that he "was not a big fan" of the Arizona Republican and onetime presidential nominee "in any way, shape or form." But, Trump added, "I would never do a thing like that."
"Now, somebody did it because they thought I didn't like him, OK? And they were well-meaning, I will say," he said, while insisting he was kept in the dark.
The order that a Navy destroyer be kept out of sight reflected what appeared to be an extraordinary White House effort to avoid offending an unpredictable president known for holding a grudge, including a particularly bitter one against McCain.
Three U.S. officials confirmed to The Associated Press that the White House told the Navy to keep the warship named for McCain, his father and his grandfather out of Trump's sight during Trump's visit Tuesday to a base outside Tokyo.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official wrote an email to Navy and Air Force officials about Trump's Memorial Day weekend visit, including instructions for preparations for the USS Wasp, where he was to speak.
"USS John McCain needs to be out of sight," according to the email, obtained by the Journal and whose existence was confirmed to the AP by the three U.S. officials. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private email correspondence.
When a Navy commander expressed surprise at the instruction, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official answered, "First I heard of it as well," the Journal reported. The official said he would talk to the White House Military Office to get more information about the directive, the newspaper reported.
Trump tweeted late Wednesday that he "was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan."
Still, he added Thursday that he "was very, very angry with McCain because he killed health care. I was not a big fan of John McCain in any way, shape or form."
As a senator, McCain broke with the president in key areas. He incensed Trump with his thumbs-down vote foiling the effort to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law. Trump also mocked McCain's military service, which included years of imprisonment and torture during the Vietnam War.
The warship, commissioned in 1994, was originally named for the senator's father and grandfather, both Navy admirals named John Sidney McCain. Last year, the Navy rededicated the ship to honor the senator as well.
Shanahan told reporters in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday that he had been unaware of the request about the USS John S. McCain.
"I never authorized, I never approved any action around the movement or activities regarding that ship," Shanahan said. He said the military "needs to do their job" and stay out of politics.
The Journal, citing photos it reviewed, reported that a tarp was placed over the USS John S. McCain's name before Trump's arrival and that sailors were instructed to remove any coverings from the ship that included its name.
Asked if the tarp was meant to block Trump's view of the ship, the officials said the tarp had been placed on the ship for maintenance and removed for the visit. Navy Cdr. Clay Doss, spokesman for U.S. 7th Fleet, told the AP that the tarp was on the ship on Friday but was removed by Saturday morning, the day Trump arrived in Japan.
"All ships remained in normal configuration during the President's visit," he said.
Two U.S. officials told AP that all the ships in the harbor were lined up for Trump's visit, and they were visible from the USS Wasp. The officials said most of their names probably could not be seen since they were side by side but that the name of the USS John S. McCain could be seen from the pier.
Rear Adm. Charlie Brown, Navy public affairs officer, tweeted Wednesday night: "The name of USS John S. McCain was not obscured during the POTUS visit to Yokosuka on Memorial Day. The Navy is proud of that ship, its crew, its namesake and its heritage." POTUS stands for president of the United States.
A paint barge was in front of the USS John S. McCain on Saturday morning when 7th Fleet officials walked the pier to see how everything looked for the visit. The barge was then ordered to be moved and was gone by the time Trump arrived, the officials said.
The Journal reported that sailors on the USS John S. McCain, who usually wear hats with the ship's name on it, were given the day off when Trump visited.
Two U.S. officials told the AP that sailors on the USS John S. McCain were not told to stay away but that many were away for the long weekend. The officials also said that about 800 sailors from more than 20 ships and Navy commands were on the USS Wasp during the president's visit, and all wore the same Navy hat that has no logo, rather than wearing individual ship or command hats.
Trump was not welcome at McCain's funeral and raised the White House's U.S. flag back to full-staff shortly after McCain's death last August, despite U.S. Flag Code stating that it should remain at half-staff for another day. The flag returned to half-staff later in the day.
McCain's daughter Meghan tweeted Wednesday that Trump will "always be deeply threatened by the greatness of my dads incredible life."
She added, "There is a lot of criticism of how much I speak about my dad, but nine months since he passed, Trump won't let him RIP. So I have to stand up for him.
"It makes my grief unbearable."
___
Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
President Trump has decided to double down and continue his crusade against a dead war hero.
Amid reports that the White House directed the Navy to keep the USS John McCain "out of sight" during Trump's visit to Japan (without Trump's knowledge), the president decided to weigh in to the press.
"I was very angry with John McCain because he killed healthcare. I was not a big fan of John McCain in any way, shape, or form. I think John McCain had a lot with getting President Bush — a lot to do with it to go into the Middle East, which was a catastrophe," Trump said en route to Colorado. "To me, John McCain, I wasn’t a fan. But I would never do a thing like that. Somebody did it because they thought I didn't like him. They were well-meaning, I will say."
Trump has a unique ability to troll his enemies into derangement. On the campaign trail, he touted Muslim bans and 2,000-mile concrete walls. But as president, he's managed to cajole Democrats into embracing literal open borders. During the early stages of the Mueller investigation, Trump called it witch hunt. But now that Democrats still want to chase uncharged and potentially nonexistent process crimes, the House has actually sort of began a witch hunt.
[ Related: ‘Trump won't let him RIP’: Meghan McCain responds to McCain ship controversy]
But there's a problem with waging a war against someone who didn't devolve into typical Trump-driven despondency in life and now happens to be dead: That's a fight Trump cannot win.
This one-way feud is as ignominious as it is inane. McCain served more than two decades in the Navy, remained a prison of war for five years despite the Vietnamese offering him early release, and spent more than 30 years in the Senate. McCain wasn't just a Republican hero, but an American one.
When Trump finds the right enemies, he's a fighter. When he finds weak ones, he's a bully. But when he finds enemies in heroes to whom every American is forever indebted, he's pathetic.
Someone associated with the White House wanted the USS John McCain out of sight while President Trump visited Japan. This is not fake news.
Of course, the usual suspects are calling it so anyway.
But the original Wall Street Journal article which broke the story hasn't fallen apart. In fact, other news outlet have independently corroborated most of the details.
On Wednesday night, the Journal reported that, per planning with the White House Military Office and the Seventh Fleet of the Navy, a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official emailed instructions to Navy and Air Force officials to keep the USS John McCain out of sight. The Journal did not charge Trump with ordering the removal of the ship, but three U.S. officials confirmed the existence of the email to the Associated Press, and two Navy officials confirmed to CNN that the directive did originate from the White House Military Office. Two Navy sailors told the New York Times that, unlike sailors from other American warships at the Yokosuka Naval Base, sailors from the McCain were not invited to meet with Trump. The Pacific Fleet even confirmed to CBS the Journal's assertion that the ship was covered by a tarp on Friday, although the plan was abandoned and the tarp removed by the time Trump arrived in Japan.
The only piece of the original Journal story not independently corroborated is the allegation that acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan knew of the scheme. For what it's worth, Shanahan categorically denies having known anything about it and has promised to get to the bottom of the scheme.
So save for the Shanahan allegation, what part of this story is fake? Trump denies ordering the plan, but the journalists who wrote these stories never accused him of doing so. The plan to obscure the ship clearly wasn't executed by the time Trump arrived in Japan, let alone at Yokosuka, but the journalists who wrote these stories never said it was.
What we do know is that someone from the White House thought that Trump would be so triggered by the ship that he or she had the audacity to direct multiple groups of people to conceal a first class destroyer. And we now know that, on some level, that person's instincts were correct.
MORE Trump on the White House order to put the USS John McCain “out of sight”:
"Somebody did it because they thought I didn't like him. They were well meaning, I will say." https://t.co/4VPATgKHwe
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) May 30, 2019
Indonesia's national police have named 10 new suspects accused of spreading online hoaxes linked to street violence in the capital city last week, in the aftermath of the announcement of the presidential election result.
Police have also arrested a politician, from the campaign team of presidential challenger Prabowo Subianto, who is suspected to have been in charge of distributing information that added to the tensions.
National police spokesman Brigadier-General Dedi Prasetyo told a press briefing yesterday that one of the 10 suspects distributed online content alleging the presence of foreign troops during the riots on May 21 and 22, and claimed they shot the rioters.
Other suspects were said by police to have sent threats to kill national figures on Facebook, spreading news about alleged unfair elections and posted videos claiming police officers tortured people in front of a mosque in Tanah Abang district, Central Jakarta.
"The 10 suspects arrested within these seven days prove the rise of accounts that deliver content in the form of hate speech, hoaxes and provocative narratives to incite public emotion and opinion. This is dangerous if we don't act," B-G Dedi said.
On Monday, the police had named six suspects linked to the unrest, including three men said to have been paid to kill four high-profile state officials.
A series of peaceful protests after the official result was announced last week descended into two days of riots that claimed the lives of eight people and injured more than 700 others.
President Joko Widodo was declared the winner of the April 17 election, beating Mr Prabowo, who claimed widespread fraud in the polls.
The authorities had described the street violence as a coordinated strike and "an event by design", with WhatsApp chat groups used by the rioters in their planning.
Speaking at the same news briefing, Senior Commissioner Rickynaldo Chairul said his team had arrested a politician from the election campaign team of Mr Prabowo.
The suspect is believed to have been in charge of distributing information which "triggers individual or group hatred" based on ethnic and religious sentiment and "fake news" to create public confusion.
The suspect, Mr Mustofa Nahrawardaya, is from the National Mandate Party, which is allied to Mr Prabowo's Gerindra party.
One of Mr Mustofa's tweets said a teenager had been beaten by the police in the Tanah Abang district in Central Jakarta, during the riots on May 22, resulting in his death. Police said what happened was that officers had acted against a young man who supplied big stones to rioters.
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AP) — Former Papua New Guinea Finance Minister James Marape was sworn in as the country's new prime minister on Thursday, following the resignation of Peter O'Neill last weekend.
Local media reported that the PNG parliament voted overwhelmingly for Marape.
Marape told reporters that he doesn't have all the answers for the country, but would do his best to mobilize the talents of members of government, the opposition, and "more importantly, talents from the greater Papua New Guineans out there."
O'Neill resigned last Sunday after seven years on the job. His announcement followed weeks of high-profile defections from his government to the opposition.
Tari Pori MP, James Marape [Photo:RNZ]
Tari Pori MP, James Marape is the 8th Papua New Guinea Prime Minister with 101 votes while Sir Mekere Morauta managed to secure only 8 votes.
Our sister station Legend FM PNG reports that there were three nominees for the PM's seat.
Marape was nominated by Sir Peter Ipatas former Prime Minister Peter O'Neill was nominated by Patrick Pruaitch while Sir Mekere Morauta was nominated by Dr Allan Marat.
However, O'Neill withdrew his nomination so it came down to Marape and Morauta.
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Listen to the latest news on our 5 radio stations Legend FM, Viti FM, Radio Sargam, FM96 and Navtarang. 
Two senior ministers, a presidential adviser and the head of the national intelligence agency were targets in an assassination plot linked to last week’s political unrest in Jakarta, the national police chief said Tuesday.
Police revealed Monday that they had arrested six suspects allegedly planning to assassinate four “national figures” and the unnamed director of a polling company during two nights of rioting in Jakarta that ended on May 23. The suspects were identified by their initials only: H.K., A.Z., I.R., T.J., A.D., and H.F.
National police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian identified the four who were targets as Security Affairs Minister Wiranto, Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, National Intelligence Agency chief Budi Gunawan and Gories Mere, presidential adviser on intelligence.
“This information was gleaned from questioning the suspects, not intelligence information,” Tito told a news conference.
A rally by supporters of defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto descended into chaos beginning on May 21 when officers clashed with protesters who threw rocks and fuel bombs, police said. At least eight people were killed over two nights of rioting.
The protesters demanded the Election Supervisory Agency take action in response to allegations by Prabowo’s camp that the April 17 election was stolen by the government of incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Police have insisted that the rioting was not spontaneous but incited by third parties bent on creating chaos to destabilize the country, adding that officers were trying to identify the responsible parties. A total of 458 people have been arrested in connection with the riots.
“We tolerated them protesting on the streets even though they disturbed public order and violated the rights of other road users,” Tito said.
Fomenting unrest
Meanwhile, national police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal said three groups were exploiting the protest to stir up unrest.
Iqbal said the first group allegedly involved a former commander of the army’s Kopassus special forces, retired Maj. Gen. Soenarko, who was arrested on May 20 on suspicion of smuggling weapons from Aceh province.
Iqbal identified the second group as a hardline Islamic group called the Islamic Reform Movement (Garis), which police said had ties to the Islamic State (IS).
Last week, police said two of the people in custody are members of Garis, whose founder Chep Hernawan claimed in 2014 that he was the Indonesian head of IS but later renounced the terrorist group. Chep said he sent several of students from his boarding school to the riot to serve on medical teams.
The six suspects who allegedly plotted the assassinations made up the third group, Iqbal said.
“This group joined the crowd and carried firearms. They are professionals because they can use firearms and know the home addresses of the targets,” he said.
After learning of the alleged plot, Wiranto said he was not deterred.
“The threat was aimed at stoking fear, but we must continue to work hard to make the country secure. Our lives are in God’s hands,” the minister told reporters.
Amnesty International
In related news, Amnesty International Indonesia (AI) has called for an impartial investigation into the deaths during last week’s riots, saying there were indications of human rights violations by security forces.
“Perpetrators of violence, be they from the police force or other parties, must be brought to justice,” AI said in a statement, adding that three minors were among this killed. “There must be a thorough investigation to uncover facts.”
A video circulated on social media appeared to show riot police beating and kicking a protester.
The riots broke out hours after General Elections Commission (KPU) announced official totals showing that Jokowi received 55.5 percent of the votes in the presidential election, against 45.5 percent for Prabowo. The KPU made the announcement shortly after midnight on May 21, a day earlier than scheduled amid concerns of massive protests.
Prabowo has challenged the election before the Constitutional Court, alleging systematic and massive electoral fraud. The court is expected to rule before June 15.
Ahmad Syamsudin in Jakarta contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump insisted on Thursday that he had nothing to do with keeping the USS John S. McCain hidden from the site of his weekend speech in Japan. He said whoever had done so was "well-meaning."
"I wasn't involved. I would not have done that. I was very angry with John McCain because he killed health care. I was not a big fan of John McCain in any way, shape or form," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. "Now, somebody did it because they thought I didn't like him, OK? And they were well-meaning. I will say, I didn't know anything about it. I would never have done that."
Trump's second denial came after The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the White House wanted the Navy to move the ship named for the late Arizona senator, as well as his father and grandfather, "out of sight," citing an email between military officials. Trump initially denied any knowledge of the effort in a tweet Wednesday night.
But an email to Navy and Air Force officials, obtained by CNBC, had a number of directives, including: "USS John McCain needs to be out of sight," and asking officials to "please confirm" that directive "will be satisfied." A source with knowledge of the matter confirmed to CNBC the existence of that email.
The Journal said a tarp was hung over the ship's name ahead of Trump's trip and that sailors were directed to remove coverings from the destroyer that bore the McCain name. The newspaper also said sailors assigned to the ship, who generally wear caps bearing its name, were given the day off during Trump's visit to the nearby USS Wasp.
Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan later told reporters, "I would never dishonor the memory of a great American patriot like Sen. John McCain" by asking that the ship be kept out of sight.
"I'd never disrespect the young men and women that crew that ship. I've asked my chief of staff to look into the matter ... and as soon as I find out more about this I'll let you know," he added.
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NEW YORK - The White House wanted the U.S. Navy to keep a warship named for the late Sen. John McCain out of President Donald Trump’s view during his recent trip to Japan, three U.S. officials said Wednesday.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan “was not aware of the directive to move the USS John S. McCain, nor was he aware of the concern precipitating the directive,” said his spokesman, Joe Buccino.
As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official wrote an email to navy and air force officials about Trump’s arrival in Japan over Memorial Day weekend. It included instructions for the proper landing areas for helicopters and preparations for the USS Wasp, the ship on which the president was to speak.
The official then issued a third instruction: “USS John McCain needs to be out of sight,” according to the email, which was obtained by the Journal and whose existence was confirmed to AP.
The three U.S. officials spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private email correspondence.
When a navy commander expressed surprise at the instruction, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official answered, “First I heard of it as well,” the Journal reported. The official said he would talk to the White House Military Office to get more information about the directive, the newspaper reported.
In response to the story, Trump — who has feuded with McCain publicly for years, including by mocking his military service — tweeted that he “was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan.”
The president notably does not say that he was not informed about the ship before his visit to Japan. A message seeking clarification was left late Wednesday for White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.
The newspaper reported that a tarp was placed over the USS John S. McCain’s name before Trump’s arrival, according to photos it reviewed, and that sailors were instructed to remove any coverings from the ship that included its name.
U.S. Navy Cmdr. Clay Doss, spokesman for the U.S. 7th Fleet, told AP that the tarp was on the ship on Friday but was removed by Saturday morning, the day Trump arrived. He said, “All ships remained in normal configuration during the president’s visit.”
Two U.S. officials told the AP that all the ships in the harbor were lined up for Trump’s visit, and they were visible from the USS Wasp. The officials said, however, that most of their names probably could not be seen since they were side by side but that the name of the USS John S. McCain could be seen from the pier.
Asked if the tarp was meant to block Trump’s view of the ship, the officials said the tarp had been placed on the ship for maintenance and removed for the visit.
Rear Adm. Charlie Brown, navy public affairs officer, tweeted Wednesday night: “The name of USS John S. McCain was not obscured during the POTUS visit to Yokosuka on Memorial Day. The navy is proud of that ship, its crew, its namesake and its heritage.”
Two U.S. officials said a paint barge was in front of the USS John S. McCain on Saturday morning when 7th Fleet officials walked the pier to see how everything looked for the visit. The barge was then ordered to be moved and was gone by the time Trump arrived, the officials said.
The Journal reported, based on people familiar with the matter, that sailors on the USS John S. McCain, who usually wear hats with the ship’s name on it, were given the day off when Trump visited.
Two U.S. officials told AP that sailors on the USS John S. McCain were not told to stay away but that many were away for the long weekend. The officials also said that about 800 sailors from more than 20 ships and navy commands were on the USS Wasp during the president’s visit, and all wore the same navy hat that has no logo, rather than wearing individual ship or command hats.
Trump and McCain had a frosty relationship and that continued, on Trump’s part, even after McCain died in August 2018 of brain cancer.
In 2015, McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona, had gotten under then-candidate Trump’s skin by saying he had “fired up the crazies” at a rally in Phoenix. Trump, also a Republican, later told a crowd in Iowa that McCain was only a war hero “because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
After Trump took office, McCain established himself as a leading critic, opposing Trump’s immigration-limiting order, warning him against coziness with Moscow and lecturing him on the illegality of torture. The senator incensed the president with his thumbs-down vote that foiled the president’s efforts to repeal former President Barack Obama’s health care law.
Trump was not welcome at McCain’s funeral and had the White House’s U.S. flag raised back to full-staff shortly after McCain’s death, despite the U.S. Flag Code stating that it should remain at half-staff for another day. The flag returned to half-staff later in the day.
McCain’s daughter, Meghan, tweeted Wednesday that Trump will “always be deeply threatened by the greatness of my dads incredible life.”
Trump is a child who will always be deeply threatened by the greatness of my dads incredible life. There is a lot of criticism of how much I speak about my dad, but nine months since he passed, Trump won’t let him RIP. So I have to stand up for him.
It makes my grief unbearable. https://t.co/gUbFAla1VE
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) May 30, 2019
She added, “There is a lot of criticism of how much I speak about my dad, but nine months since he passed, Trump won’t let him RIP. So I have to stand up for him.
“It makes my grief unbearable.”
The White House asked the US Navy to hide a massive ship named in part after Sen. John McCain ahead of President Donald Trump’s trip to Japan — a request exposing the great lengths staff will go to ensure Trump isn’t triggered by the memory of his former rival.
The president traveled to Yokusuka naval base to speak to US and Japanese troops on Memorial Day during his four-day trip to the Pacific nation. USS John S. McCain — named after the late lawmaker, his father, and his grandfather — is docked there for repairs after a 2017 collision that killed 10 sailors. That means there was a good chance Trump would see the destroyer — prominently featuring the McCain name — once he helicoptered in.
According to an email reviewed on Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story, a US military official ordered that “USS John McCain needs to be out of sight” when the president arrives. That directive apparently came after conversations between the White House Military Office, which provides travel and other support to the president, and the US Navy.
But the request seemingly went nowhere. Once higher-level Navy officials heard of the planning, they told their subordinates to “knock it off,” per CNN. Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan “was not aware of the directive ... nor was he aware of the concern precipitating the directive,” his spokesperson said in a statement emailed early Thursday morning to reporters. And Trump tweeted Wednesday that he “was not informed about anything having to do” with USS John McCain planning.
There is still some controversy over just how much effort was put into obscuring USS John McCain’s presence during the president’s visit. The Wall Street Journal also reported on photos showing a tarp put over the ship’s name, and after it was taken down a barge was moved closer to the destroyer to hide the name. Multiple reports also indicate that sailors aboard the McCain were given the day off during Trump’s Tuesday Memorial Day visit (it was still Monday in America).
The Navy and other US officials, however, deny or explain away all of this. “The name of USS John S. McCain was not obscured during the POTUS visit to Yokosuka on Memorial Day,” Rear Adm. Charlie Brown, the Navy’s top spokesperson, tweeted Wednesday night. “The Navy is proud of that ship, its crew, its namesake and its heritage.”
A US official told CNN that “the barge had been there regularly. At one angle, you might not have seen the ship’s name, but the name was visible at all times.” And multiple officials added that sailors from USS John McCain and USS Stethem, another destroyer at Yokusuka, were given Memorial Day weekend off. Not all sailors in the area were invited to see Trump’s speech aboard another ship, USS Wasp, because there wasn’t enough room.
Still, the request and its aftermath have reopened wounds barely healed from when McCain and Trump openly clashed over American values, the Russia investigation, healthcare, and national security. It goes to show that Trump’s staff worries how the president might react even to the idea of the former senator long after he passed away.
The McCain-Trump feud goes way back, but here are just a few examples of how it’s played out.
In July 2015, McCain told the New Yorker that a speech Trump gave in Phoenix earlier that week was “very hurtful to me ... Because what he did was he fired up the crazies.”
Trump clearly didn’t take kindly to that. He attacked McCain for spending five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam after opposing forces shot his plane down. “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured,” Trump told an audience at a 2015 Christian conservative conference.
It’s worth noting that Trump never served in the Vietnam War after receiving draft deferments from 1964 to 1968 while a college student, later getting an additional deferment for medical reasons. McCain, on the other hand, suffered torture so brutal that he was permanently unable to lift his arms above his head afterward.
Then in 2017, McCain surprisingly voted against the GOP-led Senate’s so-called “skinny repeal” of Obamacare, keeping the law intact. Trump ceaselessly mocked McCain afterward, saying that “he’s been campaigning for eight years — repeal and replace. And he didn’t do that.”
And it didn’t help that McCain requested Trump not attend his funeral last year, even though former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama — the man who defeated the senator in the 2008 presidential race — were there. Trump fumed months later: “I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which as president I had to approve,” he said during a March rally. ”I don’t care about this, I didn’t get a thank you. That’s OK.”
To be clear, Trump didn’t authorize the funeral — that would’ve happened without his consent. However, he did he personally approve the use of Air Force 2 to fly McCain’s body from Arizona to Washington, DC (where the funeral was held). It’s not the same thing as authorizing the whole funeral, which Trump took credit for.
Trump, it seems, will hold onto this grudge forever. “I never was a fan of John McCain, and I never will be,” he told reporters in March while in the Oval Office next to Brazil’s president. No wonder, then, that his staff considered keeping USS John McCain “out of sight” — even if many would see it as extremely distasteful.
“I’ve visited the USS John S McCain and spoken with its crew - ten of whom died in a collision in 2017. They’re heroes and patriots, as were their ship’s namesakes, and should never be asked to stay out of sight,” Abraham Denmark, a former top Asia security official at the Pentagon, tweeted Wednesday. “This is a disgraceful insult.”
The White House wanted the U.S. Navy to keep a warship named for the late Sen. John McCain out of President Donald Trump's view during his trip to Japan, three U.S. officials said.
As first reported Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official wrote an email to Navy and Air Force officials about Trump's arrival in Japan over Memorial Day weekend. It included instructions for the proper landing areas for helicopters and preparations for the USS Wasp , the ship on which the president was to speak.
The official then issued a third instruction: "USS John McCain needs to be out of sight," according to the email, which was obtained by the Journal and whose existence was confirmed to The Associated Press.
The three U.S. officials spoke Wednesday to the AP on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private email correspondence.
When a Navy commander expressed surprise at the instruction, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official answered, "First I heard of it as well," the Journal reported. The official said he would talk to the White House Military Office to get more information about the directive, the newspaper reported.
In response to the story, Trump — who feuded with McCain publicly for years and mocked his military service — tweeted that he "was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan."
The president notably does not say that he was not informed about the ship before his visit to Japan. A message seeking clarification was left late Wednesday for White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.
In Jakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday morning, Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters, "When I read about it this morning, it was the first I heard about it."
He later told reporters traveling with him to a security conference in Singapore that he would ask his chief of staff to look into the reports.
"I never authorized, I never approved any action around the movement or activities regarding that ship," Shanahan said.
He said he would never dishonor the memory of a great American like McCain or disrespect the young men and women in the crew of the ship.
Asked about service members getting involved in political situations, Shanahan said the military "needs to do their job" and stay out of politics.
The Wall Street Journal reported that a tarp was placed over the USS John S. McCain's name before Trump's arrival, according to photos it reviewed, and that sailors were instructed to remove any coverings from the ship that included its name.
U.S. Navy Cdr. Clay Doss, spokesman for U.S. 7th Fleet, told the AP that the tarp was on the ship on Friday but was removed by Saturday morning, the day Trump arrived.
"All ships remained in normal configuration during the President's visit," he said.
Two U.S. officials told the AP that all the ships in the harbor were lined up for Trump's visit, and they were visible from the USS Wasp. The officials said, however, that most of their names probably could not be seen since they were side by side but that the name of the USS John S. McCain could be seen from the pier.
Asked if the tarp was meant to block Trump's view of the ship, the officials said the tarp had been placed on the ship for maintenance and removed for the visit.
Rear Adm. Charlie Brown, Navy public affairs officer, tweeted Wednesday night: "The name of USS John S. McCain was not obscured during the POTUS visit to Yokosuka on Memorial Day. The Navy is proud of that ship, its crew, its namesake and its heritage."
Two U.S. officials said a paint barge was in front of the USS John S. McCain on Saturday morning when 7th Fleet officials walked the pier to see how everything looked for the visit. The barge was then ordered to be moved and was gone by the time Trump arrived, the officials said.
The Journal reported, based on people familiar with the matter, that sailors on the USS John S. McCain, who usually wear hats with the ship's name on it, were given the day off when Trump visited.
Two U.S. officials told the AP that sailors on the USS John S. McCain were not told to stay away but that many were away for the long weekend. The officials also said that about 800 sailors from more than 20 ships and Navy commands were on the USS Wasp during the president's visit, and all wore the same Navy hat that has no logo, rather than wearing individual ship or command hats.
Trump and McCain had a frosty relationship and that continued, on Trump's part, even after McCain died in August 2018 of brain cancer.
In 2015, McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona, had gotten under then-candidate Trump's skin by saying he had "fired up the crazies" at a rally in Phoenix. Trump, also a Republican, later told a crowd in Iowa that McCain was only a war hero "because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured."
After Trump took office, McCain established himself as a leading critic, opposing Trump's immigration-limiting order, warning him against coziness with Moscow and lecturing him on the illegality of torture. The senator incensed the president with his thumbs-down vote that foiled the president's efforts to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law.
Trump was not welcome at McCain's funeral and raised the White House's U.S. flag back to full-staff shortly after McCain's death, despite U.S. Flag Code stating that it should remain at half-staff for another day. The flag returned to half-staff later in the day.
McCain's daughter Meghan tweeted Wednesday that Trump will "always be deeply threatened by the greatness of my dads incredible life."
She added, "There is a lot of criticism of how much I speak about my dad, but nine months since he passed, Trump won't let him RIP. So I have to stand up for him.
"It makes my grief unbearable."
An Ethiopian Airlines pilot told senior managers at the carrier months before one of its Boeing 737 Max jets crashed that more training and better communication to crew members was needed to avert a repeat of a similar disaster involving a Lion Air flight.
According to emails and documents reviewed by Bloomberg News, the pilot in December urged his superiors to bolster training on a 737 Max flight-control feature so crews would be better prepared for what the Lion Air pilots encountered in October before plunging into the Java Sea, killing all aboard.
“It will be a crash for sure,” if pilots struggling with a malfunction of Boeing’s flight-control system on the 737 Max also encountered, for example, a cockpit warning that they were flying too close to the ground, the pilot, Bernd Kai von Hoesslin, wrote in a Dec. 13 email.
On March 10, an Ethiopian Airlines plane operated by two other pilots crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing 157.
While the crash played out differently from how von Hoesslin described, he accurately foresaw the chaos and peril of multiple cockpit warnings that pilots dealt with during the March crash. Von Hoesslin’s communications add another layer to the competing narratives that have shaped the public’s view of the 737 Max crisis -- and of who’s most responsible for what went wrong.
In 418 pages of previously unreported correspondence and documents he sent to airline managers, von Hoesslin cited a number of concerns he said needed to be addressed relating to maintenance, pilot rest and operational procedures. His concerns bring fresh attention to the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines jet, which prompted a worldwide grounding of Boeing’s top-selling passenger jet and the company’s most significant crisis in decades.Von Hoesslin declined to comment for this story. The documents seen by Bloomberg came from another person who asked not to be identified.
Ethiopian Airlines spokesman Biniam Demssie said by phone: “I can’t comment on anything right now.” The airline has said its pilots have completed all the training that Boeing and the FAA recommended.
It’s unclear whether von Hoesslin’s suggestions for training would have made a difference, said Jeffrey Guzzetti, the former director of the US Federal Aviation Administration’s Accident Investigation Division, noting that crash investigators, regulators and airlines are still evaluating the extent of additional training needed.
“I bet there were numerous other similar discussions within other 737 Max airlines following the Lion Air accident, and I bet considerations were made in some fashion with most of those airlines,” he said.
Von Hoesslin’s bosses at Ethiopian Airlines, as well as the nation’s Transport Minister, have cast suspicion on a malfunction of the 737 Max feature known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System. The Chicago-based planemaker, while careful not to be seen blaming a customer, has noted the role pilot actions also played in the Ethiopian and Lion Air disasters.
In both, pilots unsuccessfully battled automatic nose-down movements commanded by MCAS. The movements were triggered by erroneous readings from one of the Max’s two weather vane-like “angle of attack” sensors on either side of the jet’s nose.
In the December email, von Hoesslin reminded managers that flight crews could be overwhelmed by multiple warnings and cockpit alerts that can sound during an errant activation of MCAS. Problems with the system led to the 737 Max’s global grounding in March and shook confidence in Boeing and its regulator, the US Federal Aviation Administration.
Von Hoesslin, who identified himself in the documents as a certified 737 instructor, submitted his resignation to Ethiopian Airlines in April. The documents reviewed by Bloomberg, including the December email urging additional training, were attached to von Hoesslin’s resignation letter.
In his email to several bosses, including those responsible for flight operations and safety, von Hoesslin called attention to the airline’s flight simulator program. The simulators were based on Boeing’s earlier 737 “Next Generation,” or NG, family of jets, and the program didn’t replicate MCAS, he said.
Although regulators and airlines around the world did not require that pilots train on a Max simulator after the Lion Air crash, Hoesslin took issue with the airline’s approach.
“The sim program does not simulate the MCAS, thus using this older NG has serious drawbacks in our training when operating the Max,” von Hoesslin wrote in an email. “I suggest alternate training methods.”
In a separate email in November, von Hoesslin asked airline managers to provide more detail about MCAS to “those Max pilots who are not fully or even aware of how the Max MCAS” system functions. The request came after a flight operations manager at the airline circulated Boeing’s November 6 service bulletin that described, without naming MCAS, how erroneous sensor data could cause the jet to pitch toward the ground automatically, and how pilots should respond.
In response to von Hoesslin, the manager circulated more details about MCAS that the manager said came from Boeing and that explained the automated flight-control feature in greater detail.
Earlier this month, Ethiopian Airlines said it is “among the very few airlines in the world” that operates a full-flight simulator for the Boeing 737 Max 8 but that it wasn’t configured to simulate MCAS.
On May 17, two days after a US House hearing in which Missouri Republican Sam Graves cited pilot error as a factor in the fatal crash, Ethiopian Airlines said in a statement that any effort “to divert public attention from the flight control system problem of the airplane is a futile exercise because it is not based on factually correct analysis.”
While US aviation regulators and Boeing issued warnings in November that included instructions on how pilots should respond to MCAS’s activation, there was no call for simulator training. Ethiopian Transport Minister Dagmawit Moges has said the pilots followed proper procedures issued after the Lion Air crash.
In an April 4 statement, Ethiopian Airlines said the preliminary report into the March 10 crash “clearly showed” that the pilots followed correct procedure.
However, that report shows the pilots left the thrust too high and turned the motor driving MCAS back on after initially switching it off.
In his resignation letter, von Hoesslin said he felt the airline hadn’t fully responded to his complaints.
“Some of these concerns were safety-related and well within the duty of the airline to adequately address,” he wrote.
Two U.S. officials told the AP that sailors on the USS John S. McCain were not told to stay away but that many were away for the long weekend. The officials also said that about 800 sailors from more than 20 ships and Navy commands were on the USS Wasp during the president's visit, and all wore the same Navy hat that has no logo, rather than wearing individual ship or command hats.
Trump and McCain had a frosty relationship and that continued, on Trump's part, even after McCain died in August 2018 of brain cancer.
In 2015, McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona, had gotten under then-candidate Trump's skin by saying he had "fired up the crazies" at a rally in Phoenix. Trump, also a Republican, later told a crowd in Iowa that McCain was only a war hero "because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured."
After Trump took office, McCain established himself as a leading critic, opposing Trump's immigration-limiting order, warning him against coziness with Moscow and lecturing him on the illegality of torture. The senator incensed the president with his thumbs-down vote that foiled the president's efforts to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law.
Trump was not welcome at McCain's funeral and raised the White House's U.S. flag back to full-staff shortly after McCain's death, despite U.S. Flag Code stating that it should remain at half-staff for another day. The flag returned to half-staff later in the day.
McCain's daughter, Meghan, tweeted Wednesday that Trump will "always be deeply threatened by the greatness of my dads incredible life."
She added, "There is a lot of criticism of how much I speak about my dad, but nine months since he passed, Trump won't let him RIP. So I have to stand up for him.
"It makes my grief unbearable."
Trump and McCain had a frosty relationship and that continued, on Trump's part, even after McCain died in August 2018 of brain cancer.
In 2015, McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona, had gotten under then-candidate Trump's skin by saying he had "fired up the crazies" at a rally in Phoenix. Trump, also a Republican, later told a crowd in Iowa that McCain was only a war hero "because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured."
After Trump took office, McCain established himself as a leading critic, opposing Trump's immigration-limiting order, warning him against coziness with Moscow and lecturing him on the illegality of torture. The senator incensed the president with his thumbs-down vote that foiled the president's efforts to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law.
Trump was not welcome at McCain's funeral and raised the White House's U.S. flag back to full-staff shortly after McCain's death, despite U.S. Flag Code stating that it should remain at half-staff for another day. The flag returned to half-staff later in the day.
McCain's daughter, Meghan, tweeted Wednesday that Trump will "always be deeply threatened by the greatness of my dads incredible life."
She added, "There is a lot of criticism of how much I speak about my dad, but nine months since he passed, Trump won't let him RIP. So I have to stand up for him.
"It makes my grief unbearable."
The USS John McCain, a US warship.
Ted Aljibe | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was unaware of any effort to move the USS John S. McCain that was stationed near the site of his recent speech in Japan.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the White House wanted the U.S. Navy to move the ship named for the late Arizona senator "out of sight," citing an email between U.S. military officials.
The email to Navy and Air Force officials had a number of directives, including: "USS John McCain needs to be out of sight," and asking officials to "please confirm" that directive "will be satisfied." A source with knowledge of the matter confirmed to CNBC the existence of that email.
The newspaper said a tarp was hung over the ship's name ahead of Trump's trip and sailors were directed to remove coverings from the destroyer that bore its name. The paper also said sailors assigned to the ship, who generally wear caps bearing its name, were given the day off during Trump's visit to the nearby USS Wasp.
"I was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan," Trump wrote on Twitter.
In a statement to CNBC's Amanda Macias, the Pentagon said: "Secretary Shanahan was not aware of the directive to move the USS John S. McCain nor was he aware of the concern precipitating the directive."
Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the Navy's Seventh Fleet, said the tarp was taken down on Saturday before Trump's visit to the area. "All ships remained in normal configuration during the President's visit," Doss said.
McCain, the unsuccessful 2008 Republican presidential nominee, was shot down during the Vietnam War and tortured by his North Vietnamese Communist captors during more than five years in captivity as a prisoner of war.
Trump has long criticized McCain on a variety of fronts, and has kept up his attacks on McCain even following his death in August.
Meghan McCain, the late senator's elder daughter, criticized Trump on Twitter on Wednesday, saying, Trump "will always be deeply threatened by the greatness of my dad's incredible life ... nine months since he passed, Trump won't let him RIP. So I have to stand up for him."
The USS John S. McCain is named for the late senator and his father and grandfather, who were both Navy admirals. The destroyer was involved in a 2017 collision that resulted in the deaths of 10 crew members and is currently undergoing repairs.
— CNBC's Amanda Macias contributed to this report.
NEW YORK - Just days after a Lion Air Boeing 737 Max nosedived in Indonesia and killed all 189 people aboard, an Ethiopian Airlines pilot began pleading with his bosses for more training on the Max, warning that crews could easily be overwhelmed in a crisis and that one of their planes could be the next to go down.
“We are asking for trouble,” veteran pilot Bernd Kai von Hoesslin wrote in a December email obtained by The Associated Press, adding that if several alarms go off in the cockpit at once, “it will be a crash for sure.”
That prediction proved all too accurate.
What Ethiopian Airlines did in response to his warnings is unclear, and whether it made any difference is a matter of dispute. But within weeks, an Ethiopian Max indeed went down, killing all 157 people on board. It slammed into the ground amid a flurry of alarms as the pilots struggled to control a malfunction in the automatic anti-stall system.
While that system has gotten most of the scrutiny in the two Max crashes five months apart that have led to a worldwide grounding of the planes, the concerns raised by von Hoesslin have added to a debate on the role pilot error played and whether Ethiopian’s pilots were as prepared as they could have been to avert disaster.
Von Hoesslin, a Canadian citizen who resigned from Ethiopian last month, argued in three emails to senior managers that after the anti-stall system came under suspicion in the first crash, crews flying the airline’s five Max jets should have been given more information and training on how the system worked and drilled on the steps to override it if it faltered.
Von Hoesslin’s emails were first reported by Bloomberg.
The Max’s system, called MCAS, for Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, automatically pushes the plane’s nose down when it is at risk of stalling. It misfired in both fatal crashes, with pilots losing control of the plane as they fought against it.
According to the email chain obtained by AP, Ethiopian responded to the Oct. 29 Lion Air crash with a few emails to pilots detailing bulletins from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing on what do if the anti-stall system malfunctioned. Other Ethiopian pilots who spoke to AP say those emails required no signoffs that pilots actually read and understood the directives, and no mandated additional training.
“Ethiopian Airlines is a rapidly expanding airline and they have extremely inexperienced crews,” von Hoesslin said in documents obtained by AP. “You need to spoon-feed them the information and make sure they understand.”
To underscore his point, von Hoesslin made a video shortly after the Ethiopian crash in which he quizzed a Max pilot on a Boeing list of warning signs on the stall system that crew members were required to commit to memory. That video, obtained by AP, shows him going blank on most of it.
“You have to have confirmation that they opened it, that they read it and that they understood it,” von Hoesslin said in a document obtained by AP. “They should have done a little online test with 10 questions. You don’t pass until you get the 10 questions.”
Ethiopian Airlines tweeted Wednesday that “the source of these false allegations is a disgruntled former employee … who has left the airline after many administrative problems.”
Von Hoesslin’s lawyer, Darryl Levitt, issued a statement saying the pilot was not fired but “resigned due to legitimate concerns he had raised that he felt were not adequately addressed.” He added that von Hoesslin will be cooperating with regulators and authorities “with his sole objective of contributing to make air travel safe.”
Ethiopian has said that the requirements for warning and training Max pilots after the Lion Air crash were set by the FAA and Boeing and that their directives were used to “brief all our pilots” and incorporated into flight manuals.
CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said in an interview shortly after the Ethiopian crash, “Today we believe that might not have been enough.”
Gebremariam declined to say whether the pilots on the doomed flight took additional training after the Lion Air crash on Ethiopian’s Max simulator, a multimillion-dollar piece of equipment most airlines don’t have, but said “it wouldn’t have made any difference” because the simulator wasn’t designed to imitate problems in the new jet’s flight-control system.
Ethiopian has said both the pilot and co-pilot followed all the steps Boeing laid out in its bulletin on how to respond to a malfunction in the anti-stall system.
But the preliminary report on the March 10 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi showed that the pilots deviated from the directives and made other mistakes, notably flying the plane at an unusually high speed and inexplicably reactivating the anti-stall system shortly after manually overriding it.
Six minutes into its flight, the plane with passengers from nearly a dozen countries cratered into the ground about 40 miles from the airport.
Former FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said the Ethiopian pilots clearly bear some of the blame.
“So Boeing was at fault because a light came on or this thing tripped mistakenly, but it shouldn’t have brought the airplane down,” Babbitt said of the anti-stall system. “That was very fixable and a pretty simple solution. And they didn’t come to grips with it. … They let the plane get away from them.”
Von Hoesslin, a 56-year-old pilot with three decades of flying experience, initially wrote to his bosses Nov. 11 in response to the airline’s five-sentence email to dozens of pilots alerting them to the Boeing bulletin and reminding them about the checklist of steps to perform should something similar go wrong.
He urged Ethiopian to give more information because pilots are not “fully or even aware of how” the MCAS works. That prompted a second email from the airline with more detail.
A month later, on Dec. 12, von Hoesslin sent another email, urging a close reading of a preliminary report from Indonesian regulators on the crash there. He pointed out several potential problems with the Max and recommended steps be taken to make sure pilots know the checklist.
The next day, he sent a third email recommending new simulator training designed to roughly re-create what went wrong in the Indonesian flight, adding that he had already practiced in a simulator rigged in such a way and his experience with all the alarms going off was frightening.
“Throw in a GPWS PULL UP,” he said, referring to a cockpit alarm urging pilots to pull up the aircraft, “and it would be a crash for sure.”
Boeing has said that its fix to software on the Max’s anti-stall system will be accompanied by additional training for pilots. The acting chief of the FAA, Daniel Elwell, said last week that his agency hasn’t decided whether that training should be conducted on computers or in flight simulators.
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