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Back off the ground
Ready for take off and safe landing? Questions many are asking when the supposedly revamped American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX took its first public flight on Wednesday after a 20-month suspension, the longest in civil aviation history, following two fatal accidents involving 346 people lost their lives.
In November, the US and Brazilian authorities gave the green light for the controversial aircraft to return to service, after several modifications and the introduction of specific training for the pilots. As before flying the MAX, each American pilot is required to complete a two-hour course on a computer tablet, one hour of flight simulation, followed by two-hour flight scenario reaction training by paired colleagues. .
American Airlines’ promotional trip on Wednesday between Dallas, Texas and Tulsa, Oklahoma was an active communication strategy to engage and reassure the public before resuming commercial service on December 29, with the first flight of the MAX scheduled for Miami and New York.
Facemask passengers were seated in accordance with social distancing guidelines in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and the 50-minute flight to Tulsa on Wednesday was uneventful with just a bit of turbulence along the way.
Doubts and speculation
Although the Boeing 737 MAX has already undergone several thousand hours of test flights led by specialists from the aviation sector, the relatives of the victims of the Lion Air tragedies on October 29, 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines on October 10, 2018. March 2019, they are not convinced.
They condemn American Airlines’ perceived marketing tactic and dismiss the efforts as a way to salvage a bad investment on the part of the company, which had 24 units in its service – that is, the second-largest customer of all other airlines since before the two calamities.
Traumatized family members believe there are still technical problems to correct and pay attention.
The main change requested by regulators concerns the MCAS flight control software, which the pilots of the aforementioned tragedies were unable to master.
Boeing plans to establish an operations center that will monitor all flights in real time.
American Airlines has stated that all customers purchasing tickets will be notified of flights using the MAX aircraft and the airline will provide alternate travel for passengers who prefer not to board this specific aircraft.
