A preliminary report of the crash of a Boeing 737 Max plane of the Ethiopian Airlines last month claims that before the craft crashed to the ground killing all on board, it had nosedived a number of times.

According to the first official report into the disaster, the pilots “repeatedly” followed procedures as stated by Boeing before the crash.

Ethiopian Transport Minister Dagmawit Moges said that the pilots “were not able to control the aircraft” despite their efforts.

157 people on board died in the crash of Flight ET302 after take-off from Addis Ababa.

That was the second crash involving a Boeing 737 Max plane within a time span of just five months. All of the 189 people on board died after  Lion Air flight JT 610 crashed into the sea close to Indonesia in October last year.

“The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly [that were] provided by the manufacturer but were not able to control the aircraft,” Dagmawit said in a press briefing in Addis Ababa.

The preliminary report of the crash, the basis of her comments, is expected to be made public by the end of this week.

Following the Ethiopian Airlines crash, all of the Boeing 737 Max planes were grounded all across the world.

No blame for the crash was attributed in the preliminary report. Neither was any detailed analysis of the flight provided in it. However the report clearly indicated that the aircraft control system should be reviewed by Boeing and before allowing the 737 Max back into the air, aviation regulators need to confirm that the issue in the crafts had been resolved.

He was “very proud” of the pilots’ “high level of professional performance”, said the chief executive of Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde GebreMariam, in a statement.

“It was very unfortunate they could not recover the airplane from the persistence of nosediving,” the Ethiopian Airline said in a statement.

A on-board software on the Boeing 737 Max crafts designed to aid in stopping the craft from stalling – called the Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), has been at the focus of investigations. When sensors in the nose of the aircraft detects a situation where it calculates that the place is climbing at an higher angle than prescribed – which could result in the craft stalling, the software is activated.

A malfunction of the same system was suggested in the investigation of the Lion Air flight crash. In that incident, investigators revealed that the plane had nosedived over 20 times before it finally crashed down. The MCAS had been accidentally and wrongly triggered – without knowledge of the pilots, because of faulty sensor on the aircraft, found investigators from Indonesia in their preliminary report.

Since the Lion Air crash, an upgrade of the MCAS software is being prepared by Boeing. The largest aircraft maker of the world has said that it is possible to disable the system and pilots can then gain back control of the craft in case there is a semblance of a problem with the system.

However, according to the latest comments from officials in Ethiopia, despite following procedures recommended by Boeing, it was not possible for the pilots to gain control over the craft.

(Adapted from BBC.com)