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The Boeing 737 Max aircraft has been linked to 346 deaths and, after a short break, is ready to carry passengers again. American Airlines is the first to reintroduce the jumbo jet in the United States, CNBC reports, with a flight that departed from Miami International Airport at 10:40 am today.
The flight to New York’s LaGuardia Airport had 87 passengers on board, according to an American Airlines spokesperson, and the Max’s flight back to Miami on Tuesday is nearly full. American Airlines plans to offer round-trip service from Miami to New York City for now, with expansion to other cities very soon.
American and other airlines originally planned to have the 737 Max in the air last March, but then … well, the world has been a bit stressed out since March. Airlines are confident the 737 Max is more than safe now, but the future of the plane is far from certain.
346 deaths – Boeing’s 737 Max, a next-generation evolution of the company’s classic 737, had a very difficult launch. The Max was the subject of scandal after two major accidents left 346 passengers dead. The experts found that the problem was the plane’s larger engines, which could stop mid-flight. Boeing built a software system designed to mitigate this risk, but that system apparently malfunctioned twice in a five-month period. And it turns out that Boeing employees had expressed concern that it would do just that. Yes. Bad everywhere.
Boeing halted production of the plane and spent the intervening months troubleshooting its operations.
But how … How safe is it really? The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has authorized the 737 Max to carry passengers once again. But the FAA also declared the plane safe last time, and we see how well it turned out. Since then, the FAA has tightened its clearance regulations. FAA chief Stephen Dickson says the conditions that caused the two fatal 737 Max crashes are now “impossible.”
It’s unclear whether passengers will feel safe enough to keep planes booked and occupied. Several accident victims and relatives of the deceased have asked that the planes never carry passengers again, a request that has been ignored by regulators. American Airlines is allowing customers to rebook their flight if they feel uncomfortable flying the 737 Max, but the company’s president told reporters that he “hasn’t realized” that no one asks yet.
Of course, American makes no effort to remind customers that the plane has been involved in multiple fatal accidents.
