CNN Host Says Ethiopian Plane Crashed Because of US Government Shutdown

The unlikely connection did not survive fact checking, though.

CNN host Brianna Keilar connected the Sunday crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 with the recent temporary government shutdown in the US.

Talking with US Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) Wednesday, Keilar asserted that the plane crashed because Boeing had failed to implement a pilot software upgrade in January, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was non-operational due to the shutdown.

"So Boeing actually failed to provide a software fix for the flight system in the 737 MAX 8 until after that October crash," Keilar said. "There were pilots who looked at that and felt like this was a criminal omission. That was what they thought about this. "

"The software fix, then, according to The Wall Street Journal, was supposed to happen in January, and it was delayed because of the government shutdown, because the FAA was offline," she continued before asking Kildee for his opinion.

However, Keilar's assertion turned out to be factually incorrect, The Daily Caller reported. After checking the Wall Street Journal article the host referred to, the website discovered that Boeing did not provide the software update due to "differences of opinion and technical and engineering issues."

In addition, the FAA was far from non-operational during the shutdown: according to The Daily Caller, thousands of FAA safety inspectors and other staff were recalled during the period in order to ensure the safety of flights across the nation.

With regard to Boeing's software update delay, the FAA did not press the company on the matter, because at the time the administration felt there was "no imminent safety threat," The Wall Street Journal wrote in its article.

The update in question, which is now scheduled to be deployed in April, will allow pilots greater control over the plane in emergency situations.