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Elaine thompson
Boeing’s ill-fated 737 Max received permission to take off after more than a year and a half, subject to certain conditions. One of the prerequisites for this is the installation of new control software on the aircraft, as the FAA from US air traffic control in Washington announced on Wednesday. It will still take a while before the 737 Max can fully start working again. First, final maintenance work and pilot training must be completed.
The 737 Max was taken out of service in March 2019 in the course of two crashes with a total of 346 deaths. The main cause of the accidents was considered to be a faulty control program. Boeing really wanted to fix the problems after the first accident. However, other deficiencies occurred repeatedly, which is why it finally took the FAA around 20 months to lift the flight ban.
The European aviation authority, EASA, had already announced in mid-October that the 737 Max was safe enough again and therefore gave its consent for a new registration. Experts hope that European supervisory authorities and other international authorities will also quickly give the green light. In addition to EASA, supervisors from Canada and Brazil had already cooperated with the FAA on parts of the reauthorization process.
In any case, it is necessary to demonstrate how airlines and passengers accept crisis pilots. The truth is that the disasters shook confidence in Boeing and seriously scratched the image of the company, which until the time of the accident was considered a model corporation that was ruined by success and a driving force in the American economy. Boeing had come under massive criticism for the debacle surrounding the 737 Max and was suspected of releasing the model to market in fierce competition with Airbus and of neglecting safety. Boeing rejected this, but the manufacturer admitted mistakes and setbacks.
The final report of the United States Congress on the crashes concluded that technical errors, as well as cover-ups and regulatory failures, led to the accidents. The FAA also suffered severe criticism. In the final report, the authority is accused of grossly inadequate controls. Regulators should turn a blind eye to the original 737 Max certification and let Boeing take them by the nose. Sensitive internals put the FAA in a very bad light. In explosive Boeing talks about the 737 Max it was said: “This plane is designed by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys.”
The 737 Max disaster also put Boeing under heavy financial pressure. Airbus’ archrival was no longer able to deliver the 737 Max, its best-selling model until accidents, to customers since spring 2019 due to flight bans. Numerous orders were canceled and Boeing incurred billions in additional costs. In the three months to the end of September, the fourth consecutive quarterly loss was incurred. The group is reacting to the difficult financial situation with drastic cost-cutting measures and wants to reduce its workforce to around 130,000 by the end of 2021. For comparison: at the beginning of 2020, Boeing still had around 160,000 employees.
FAA Chief Steve Dickson had always insisted on being particularly meticulous when re-registering the 737 Max. Dickson himself has only been in the role since August 2019, so he took over the management of oversight significantly after the accidents in October 2018 and March 2019.The FAA chief, who was a Delta pilot Air Lines for a long time, met in late September. “Administrator’s Flight” personally convinced of the safety of the 737 Max. Dickson was satisfied with the flight and the pilot’s training in the flight simulator. The FAA had already completed its hot test phase in early July.
In October, the US aviation authority publicly released its drafts for the revised 737 Max pilot training. However, the comments were not all positive. There was, for example, clear criticism from the pilots’ union. Family members of some accident victims also raised concerns about whether the new guidelines were sufficient to ensure that MCAS control software, which is considered the leading cause of accidents, can be better controlled by flight crews in the future. One of the big points of criticism was that the pilots could not override the automatic in emergencies.
Even if the re-registration of the 737 Max is a huge relief to Boeing, the American aviation giant continues to go through extremely difficult times. The corona pandemic, which crippled much of air traffic and put many airlines in financial distress, is likely to carry a significantly longer load. The group expects a streak of drought that will permanently dampen demand for aircraft. Boeing estimates that it will take about three years to return to 2019 levels. It will take five years or more for the aviation industry to return to its long-term growth trend.
