FAA chief says data aligns Ethiopia flight data to Lion Air accident
From CNN's Greg Wallace
Speaking with reporters on a conference call, acting FAA Administrator Daniel Elwell said the grounding of the 737 Max 8 and 9 will remain in effect pending new information including from the flight data recorder and voice recorder.
“Since this accident occurred we were resolute that we would not take action until we had data,” Elwell said.
“That data coalesced today.” Elwell said the new data was "added fidelity -- missing pieces that we did not have prior to today." It aligned the Ethiopian flight data to the Lion Air incident.
Elwell declined to guess how long the grounding would last but he said he hoped to keep it "as short as possible."
“I can’t and I don’t want to hazard a guess as to how long. My hope is that the FAA, the carriers, the manufacturer, that all parties will work very hard to make this grounding as short as possible so that these airplanes can get back up into the sky," he said.