Daily Management Review

WSJ announces imminent start of Boeing 737 MAX flight tests


06/17/2019


The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) may launch flight tests of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft already this week since the manufacturer has corrected the shortcomings in automated systems that caused two crashes. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal, citing informed sources.



theglobalpanorama
theglobalpanorama
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg admitted that the company made mistakes in communication issues regarding the 737 MAX aircraft and promised greater transparency in the work. He announced this on June 16 at the Paris Air Show. He promised that after returning to service, the Boeing 737 MAX will be the safest aircraft in history, and assured that the company will do everything to restore the trust of customers and passengers to them, even if it takes a long time.

A poll conducted for The Wall Street Journal/NBC News showed that 25% of Americans using airplanes would try to avoid flying 737 MAX, and another 38% said they were not sure and haven’t had any particular opinion on this issue. 37% of respondents said they would willingly fly to 737 MAX as soon as their flights were allowed again. The survey was conducted among 774 people from 8 to 11 June.

Boeing 737 MAX flights were banned worldwide after two air crashes. In March 2019, 157 people died in the crash of this model belonging to the airline Ethiopian Airlines; in October 2018, 189 people crashed with an Indonesian aircraft of Lion Air.

Boeing explained both crashes with flaws in the software of the system, which regulates too sharp an angle of attack (lifting the nose of the aircraft) in flight. The journalists found out that the company knew about the problems a year before the disaster in Indonesia, but did not tell about it, did not consider it serious and planned to fix it until 2020.

source: wsj.com