Pilots tried, then halted procedures Boeing OK'd

The pilots of the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed last month initially followed emergency procedures established by Boeing to manually disable the aircraft's automated anti-stall system, according to news reports on Wednesday, but the plane slammed into the ground about five minutes after takeoff killing all on board.

The flight crew turned off the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, but they were unable to regain control of the MAX 8 jet and gain altitude, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed people who it said had knowledge of the investigation.

After turning off the automated system without regaining control of the plane, the flight crew re-engaged the MCAS, according to the Journal. It's not clear why the pilots did not instead continue following Boeing's emergency checklist, the newspaper said. Using nonstandard procedures may have made the situation worse, aviation analysts who asked not to be identified told China Daily.