Thoughts About The Boeing 737 MAX

Guy Leitch explained in his Daily Maverick article:
The 737 MAX uses bigger engines which changed the handling characteristics of the 737 MAX compared to the previous generation. 

To save Boeing from having to re-certify the aircraft because of the handling differences, and to save airlines buying the MAX from having to spend money on expensive pilot training, the FAA agreed to Boeing’s request to install a system called MCAS (a stabilator-trim system) to automatically lower the nose at low speeds to prevent the plane from stalling.

Airlines always like to claim that safety is not negotiable. 

When the Lion Air MAX crashed into the sea off Jakarta the ‘black box’ data recorder showed that the airspeed indicator was wrong and this had caused the MCAS to constantly try to lower the nose of the aircraft, despite the pilots’ best efforts to raise it.  And judging from the radar and satellite returns, this is also what happened to the Ethiopian MAX 8.

Profits vs Safety
What these two tragedies have done is shine a spotlight on the age-old conflict between profits and passenger safety. And some airlines have failed the scrutiny.

What is, however, hard to swallow is that South African Comair and all the American Airlines initially refused to ground the MAX. For American Airlines, such as South West with 31 MAX 8s already flying, a grounding is a financial catastrophe.  But Comair has only one MAX 8 flying, (with another to be delivered shortly).  And yet even with the exposure of a single MAX, Comair chose to put profits ahead of passenger safety. 

Read the whole article here: http://bit.ly/2W7QFrA

Spiegel Online wrote:
"Several pilots of American and Southwest have filed complaints earlier about the jet in the "Aviation Safety Reporting System", a US authority database on flight safety. According to one entry, the flight manual is "inadequate and almost criminally inadequate".

Boeing had developed the MCAS technology because otherwise, the flight characteristics of the aircraft would have changed due to a new type of engine placement. Pilots were unlikely to notice the change - probably also because the change to the new model was to require as little effort as possible. In some cases, the pilots were only trained on the iPad with an hour's training program."

Another Must-Read: 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/how-the-faa-allows-jetmakers-to-self-certify-that-planes-meet-us-safety-requirements/2019/03/15/96d24d4a-46e6-11e9-90f0-0ccfeec87a61_story.html

and this one:
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/failed-certification-faa-missed-safety-issues-in-the-737-max-system-implicated-in-the-lion-air-crash/



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