Analysis of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 began Friday in Paris, the airline said, beginning a process that could provide new clues about what caused the crash that killed 157 people aboard the Boeing 737 MAX 8 Sunday, and resulted in a nearly worldwide grounding of the aircraft until its safety is confirmed. Investigators are looking into the MAX 8's autopilot functions and the training of the pilots who flew the plane, as well as a mechanical part of the control system that alters the up-and-down movement of the plane's nose, an aviation source told ABC News' Senior Transportation Correspondent David Kerley. The mechanism, called a "jackscrew," is a threaded rod in the tail section of the aircraft that affects the plane's stability. A jackscrew malfunction was a factor in the cause of another fatal crash in 2000, when an Alaska Airlines plane nosedived into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Los Angeles. Air traffic controllers said they noticed the Ethiopian Airlines flight pitching up and down hundreds of feet before it crashed, according to a New York Times report Thursday night. The captain called in a panicked voice to ask to return to the airport, but the plane disappeared off the radar just minutes later, the Times reported. Public data from FlightRadar24 also showed the plane accelerated to high, abnormal speeds, though the reason was unclear. The new details could help fill out a picture of the plane's final moments. Data from the "black boxes," devices that house the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, not only will provide further guidance for investigators but also some first answers for the families of the victims. The National Transportation Safety Board, an independent U.S. agency that investigates transportation accidents and issues widely-respected safety recommendations, also sent three additional investigators to assist in the analysis. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 was involved in another deadly crash in Indonesia in October that killed 189 people. Key questions surrounding apparent similarities in the two planes' trajectories, both of which oscillated up and down before crashing within minutes of take-off, have caused about 40 countries to ground the Boeing 737 MAX as a precautionary measure. "Once they start reading out their recorders they'll know fairly quickly what this is ... is this a repeat of Lion Air or is this something different," Tom Haueter, a former NTSB investigator and ABC News contributor, told Kerley on "Good Morning America" Friday. Still, the 737 MAXs may not be back in the skies until late-April, FAA acting administrator Daniel Elwell told lawmakers in a briefing Thursday, according to a congressional aide. Boeing is implementing a software fix developed after the October crash and pilots will need to be retrained on it, Elwell said, according to the aide. A major question in the Ethiopian Airlines crash whether that software -- the plane's autopilot system -- might have played a role in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, as it seemed to have done in the fatal crash of an Indonesian Lion Air 737 MAX 8. In that crash, it appears the pilots failed to disengage the autopilot when the plane's nose began pitching up and down, perhaps because they were unaware of how to do so. Some pilots have complained that the information to disengage autopilot was not readily available, and others have raised concerns about the adequacy of the training process. "After the Lion Air tragedy, we learned that there was equipment on our aircraft that we were not aware of, it wasn't even in our book," said American Airlines pilot Dennis Tajer. Tajer, a spokesperson for a pilot's union --the Allied Pilots Association -- met with Boeing in the aftermath of the last crash. Rep. Peter DeFazio, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, announced after the briefing from Elwell that he would be "conducting a rigorous investigation to make sure that FAA is carrying out its critical safety mission." “Until investigators are able to retrieve and analyze information from the black boxes, it’s difficult to know precisely what went wrong. Nevertheless, I continue to have serious concerns about key decisions made in the FAA’s certification of the 737 MAX, and what was, and was not, disclosed to pilots," DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon, said in a statement Friday. At least 250 flights per day in the U.S. typically use Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, according to Flightradar24. The MAX fleets in the U.S. are operated by American Airlines, Southwest and United. Because of the grounding, it's estimated at least 43,000 passengers each day will have to be rerouted on different planes. In an email to some customers early Friday morning, American Airlines apologized for the inconvenience, asked for passengers to be patient and said the airline would work "tirelessly to minimize the impact." Boeing stopped delivery of the MAX jet but will continue to build them, with nearly 5,000 planes on order. Some airlines, such as Alaska Airlines, were set to receive the new 737 MAX 8 and 9 in June. Alaska Airlines indicated it expected to get them as planned but said it was "too early to speculate on future deliveries." ABC News' David Kerley, Jeff Cook, Christine Theodorou and Soo Youn contributed to this report.<doc-sep>On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that a probe into the Boeing 737 MAX 8’s deadly crash in Ethiopia reached a preliminary conclusion that the plane’s anti-stall system was activated before the jet crashed near Addis Ababa on 10 March. A pilot flying the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 passenger plane, which crashed on 10 March, was heard saying “pitch up, pitch up” just moments before the impact, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports. According to the newspaper, the comment was made as the jet plummeted towards the ground, dropping to an altitude of around 137 metres (450 feet). The jet’s radio reportedly broke down seconds after the speech was captured. READ MORE: Boeing Share Price Drops 10% Amid Ethiopian Airlines Plane Crash This comes after the WSJ reported on Friday that the plane’s anti-stall system, designed to automatically correct the jet’s direction if a sensor detects the aircraft is tilting up, had been activated before the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crash, which killed all 157 people on board. An investigation is underway and no official cause for the crash has been made public yet. Last week, media reported that the US Department of Transportation set up a committee to conduct an independent review of the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA)'s certification of the Boeing 737 MAX 8. READ MORE: EU Aviation Safety Agency to Assess Risks After Ethiopian Boeing Crash — Speaker In a separate development, Ethiopian Airlines said in a statement that it strongly refuted the Washington Post's allegations that its pilots had complained to the FAA about “flawed training programs” and poor safety procedures four years prior to the deadly crash. In the wake of the tragedy, aviation authorities and carriers around the world, including bodies in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, France, Germany, South Africa, the EU, China and Russia, either grounded all 737 MAX 8 series aircraft or closed off their airspace to them. The tragedy followed a similar deadly crash of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 in Indonesia in late October, in which 189 people were killed.<doc-sep>The Wall Street Journal - which says it has spoken to people close to the ongoing investigation - says the information it has "paints a picture of a catastrophic failure that quickly overwhelmed the flight crew".<doc-sep>
One of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302's pilots told the other "pitch up, pitch-up" moments before the doomed Boeing 737 Max jetliner crashed three weeks ago, a new report revealed. That instruction and other information about the plane's final moments paint a picture of a flight crew that was quickly overwhelmed, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. A faulty anti-stalling system on the Max is suspected in the disaster, which occurred shortly after takeoff. All 157 people on board were killed. The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) flight-control feature is also suspected in the crash of a Lion Air Boeing 737 Max in Indonesia last October, according to the BBC. The Lion Air flight went down soon after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board. The Ethiopian Airlines jet took off from Addis Ababa on March 10 and ran into trouble almost immediately, the Journal reported. LION AIR BOEING 737 MAX 8 WAS REPORTEDLY SAVED BY OFF-DUTY PILOT DAY BEFORE DEADLY CRASH IN INDONESIA First Officer Ahmed Nur Mohammed contacted the control tower and in a crackling transmission reported a “flight control problem,” according to the newspaper, which cited people close to the ongoing investigation. The tower asked for details as Captain Yared Getachew tried to climb and correct the glide path, the paper reported. Two minutes into the flight oscillation became a wild bounce, then a dive. The flight lasted fewer than six minutes. The pilot who urged the other to pitch up was not identified. BOEING, FAA QUESTIONED ABOUT SAFETY OF 737 MAX SAFETY SYSTEM DAYS BEFORE ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES CRASH The newspaper's report came as Boeing faces mounting pressure to roll out a software update for its 737 Max, its best-selling jet. Arlines grounded 737 Max jets in their fleets after the Ethiopian Airlines crash. It is hoped there will be a fix in time for the peak summer travel season, the Associated Press reported. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The Max remains grounded worldwide and airlines are losing money because of canceled flights.