Three years after the death of his son, Sam Pegram, on Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302, his father, Mark Pegram, has expressed his frustration with the airline.
157 people including Sam, 25, were killed when Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX Flight ET 302 crashed on 10 March 2019.
The crash occurred six minutes after the 737 Max aircraft took off from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi in Kenya.
Now, Mark Pegram of Preston is among the families concerned over how the aviation authorities decided to allow the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to fly once more before publishing the official final accident report into Flight ET 302.
Similarly, the continuing delay in publishing the accident report has resulted in the Inquest into the deaths of British passengers being significantly delayed.
Mark said that it is hard to believe that three years after the crash of ET302, the families of the deceased have not received the official report on his son, who was working for the Norwegian Refugee Council at the time he died, as well as others.
He said, “We have already seen agreements being drawn up to give Boeing immunity from criminal prosecution in the US and the lifting of the international flight ban before the report is even published.
“We need the report for the inquest and for all of us to be able to move forward from what has been a devastating experience for all involved.”
In Ethiopian authorities announced in March 2021 that they would prepare a final accident investigation report for release soon, but 12 months after the accident and 3 years after it occurred, the report has never been published.
Even though the precise cause of the crash of flight ET302 has not been identified following the accident investigation, the FAA, EASA and CAA all recertified the aircraft type as fit for a flight last year after the worldwide grounding of all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
Due to the late publication of the final accident report, the inquest proceedings into the deaths of English passengers have been delayed. The publication of the final report has delayed the pre-inquest review hearing several times.
There will be a hearing on June 29, but it remains to be seen whether the final accident report will be published in time for this to proceed.