737 MAX Groundings
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The
Boeing 737 MAX The Boeing 737 MAX is the fourth generation of the Boeing 737, a narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), a division of American company Boeing. It succeeds the Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG ...
passenger
airliner An airliner is a type of aircraft for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an ...
was grounded worldwide between March 2019 and December 2020longer in many jurisdictionsafter 346 people died in two crashes:
Lion Air Flight 610 Lion Air Flight 610 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, Jakarta to Depati Amir Airport, Pangkal Pinang in Indonesia. On 29 October 2018, the Boeing 737 MAX operating the route crashed into th ...
on October 29, 2018 and
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. On 10 March 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft ...
on March 10, 2019. The
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
(FAA) resisted grounding the aircraft until March 13, 2019, when it received evidence of accident similarities. By then, 51 other regulators had already grounded the plane, and by March 18, 2019, all 387 aircraft in service were grounded. In 2016, FAA approved Boeing's request to remove references to a new
Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) is a flight stabilizing feature developed by Boeing that became notorious for its role in two fatal accidents of the 737 MAX, which killed all 346 passengers and crew among both flights ...
(MCAS) from the flight manual. In November 2018, after the Lion Air accident, Boeing instructed pilots to take corrective action in case of a malfunction, when the airplane would enter a series of automated nosedives. Boeing avoided revealing MCAS until pilots requested further explanation. In December 2018, the FAA privately predicted that MCAS could cause 15 crashes over 30 years. In April 2019, the Ethiopian preliminary report stated that the crew had attempted the recovery procedure, and Boeing confirmed that MCAS had activated in both accidents. FAA certification of the MAX was subsequently investigated by the
U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
and multiple U.S. government agencies, including the Transportation Department,
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
,
NTSB The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...
,
Inspector General An inspector general is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is "inspectors general". Australia The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (Australia) (IGIS) is an independent statutory off ...
and special panels. Engineering reviews uncovered other design problems, unrelated to MCAS, in the flight computers and cockpit displays. The Indonesian
NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...
and the Ethiopian ECAA both attributed the crashes to faulty aircraft design and other factors, including maintenance and flight crew actions. Lawmakers investigated Boeing's incentives to minimize training for the new aircraft. The FAA revoked Boeing's authority to issue
airworthiness certificate A standard certificate of airworthiness is a permit for commercial passenger or cargo operation, issued for an aircraft by the civil aviation authority in the state/nation in which the aircraft is registered. For other aircraft such as crop-spraye ...
s for individual MAX airplanes and fined Boeing for exerting "undue pressure" on its designated aircraft inspectors. In August 2020, the FAA published requirements for fixing each aircraft and improving pilot training. On November 18, 2020, the FAA ended the 20-month grounding, the longest ever of a U.S. airliner. The accidents and grounding cost Boeing an estimated $20billion in fines, compensation and legal fees, with indirect losses of more than $60 billion from 1,200 cancelled orders. The MAX resumed commercial flights in the U.S. in December 2020, and was recertified in Europe and Canada by January 2021.


Groundings


Accident investigations

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...
regulations Annex 13, "Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation", defines which states may participate in investigations. For the two MAX accidents these are: # Indonesia, for Lion Air Flight 610 as the state of registration, state of occurrence, and state of the operator. # Ethiopia, for Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, as the state of registration, state of occurrence, and state of the operator. # The United States, as the state of manufacturer and issuer of the type certificate. The participating state or national transportation safety bureaus are the NTSB for the US and the NTSC for Indonesia. Australia and Singapore also offered technical assistance, shortly after the Lion Air accident, regarding data recovery from the new generation
flight recorders A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...
(FDR). With the exception of Ethiopia, the officially recognized countries are members of the Joint Authorities Technical Review (JATR).


Lion Air Flight 610

Preliminary investigations revealed serious
flight control A conventional fixed-wing aircraft flight control system consists of flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls, connecting linkages, and the necessary operating mechanisms to control an aircraft's direction in flight. Aircraft e ...
problems that traumatized passengers and crew on the aircraft's previous flight, as well as signs of
angle-of-attack In fluid dynamics, angle of attack (AOA, α, or \alpha) is the angle between a reference line on a body (often the chord line of an airfoil) and the vector representing the relative motion between the body and the fluid through which it is mov ...
(AoA) sensor and other instrument failures on that and previous flights, tied to a design flaw involving the
Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) is a flight stabilizing feature developed by Boeing that became notorious for its role in two fatal accidents of the 737 MAX, which killed all 346 passengers and crew among both flights ...
(MCAS) of the 737 MAX series. The aircraft maintenance records indicated that the AoA sensor was just replaced before the accident flight. The report tentatively attributed the accident to the erroneous angle-of-attack (AoA) data and automatic nose-down
trim Trim or TRIM may refer to: Cutting * Cutting or trimming small pieces off something to remove them ** Book trimming, a stage of the publishing process ** Pruning, trimming as a form of pruning often used on trees Decoration * Trim (sewing), or ...
commanded by MCAS. The NTSC final report, published on October 23, 2019, was prepared with assistance from the U.S. NTSB. NTSC's investigator Nurcahyo Utomo identified nine factors to the accident, saying:
"The nine factors are the root problem; they cannot be separated. Not one is contributing more than the other. Unlike NTSB reports that identify the primary cause of accidents and then list contributing issues determined to be less significant, Indonesia is following a convention used by many foreign regulators of listing causal factors without ranking them".
The final report has been shared with families of Lion Air Flight 610, then published on October 25, 2019.


Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302

On March 11, FAA defended the MAX against groundings by issuing a Continued Airworthiness Notice to operators. The initial reports for Flight 302 found that the pilots struggled to control the airplane in a manner similar to the Lion Air flight 610 crash. On March 13, 2019, the FAA announced that evidence from the crash site and satellite data on Flight 302 suggested that it might have suffered from the same problem as Lion Air Flight 610 in that the
jackscrew A jackscrew, or screw jack, is a type of jack that is operated by turning a leadscrew. It is commonly used to lift moderately and heavy weights, such as vehicles; to raise and lower the horizontal stabilizers of aircraft; and as adjustable suppo ...
controlling the pitch of the horizontal stabilizer of the crashed Flight 302, was found to be set in the full "nose down" position, similar to Lion Air Flight 610. This further implicated MCAS as contributory to the crash. Ethiopian Airlines spokesman Biniyam Demssie said that the procedures for disabling MCAS had just been incorporated into pilot training. "All the pilots flying the MAX received the training after the Indonesia crash," he said. "There was a directive by Boeing, so they took that training." Despite following the procedure, the pilots could not recover. The
Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA, am, የኢትዮጵያ ሲቪል ኤቪዬሽን ባለሥልጣን) is an agency of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Government of Ethiopia. It was established under Proclamation ...
(ECAA) led investigations for Flight 302, and the United States Federal Aviation Administration assisted in the investigation. Both
flight recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...
s (voice and data) were recovered from the crash site on March 11, 2019. The French aviation accident investigation agency BEA announced that it would analyze the flight recorders from the flight. BEA received the flight recorders on March 14, 2019. On March 17, 2019,
Dagmawit Moges Dagmawit Moges Bekele ( am, ዳግማዊት ሞገስ በቀለ; born 10 December 1983) is an Ethiopian politician serving as the current Ministry of Transport and Communications (Ethiopia), Minister of Transport and Communications of the Ethio ...
, Ethiopia's transport minister, announced that the black box had been found and downloaded, and that the preliminary data retrieved from the flight data recorder show a "clear similarity" with those of Lion Air Flight 610 which crashed off Indonesia. Due to this finding, some experts in Indonesia suggested that the NTSC should cooperate with Flight 302's investigation team. Later on the evening, the NTSC offered assistance to Flight 302's investigation team, stating that the committee and the Indonesian Transportation Ministry would send investigators and representatives from the government to assist with the investigation of the crash. The
Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA, am, የኢትዮጵያ ሲቪል ኤቪዬሽን ባለሥልጣን) is an agency of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Government of Ethiopia. It was established under Proclamation ...
published an interim report on March 9, 2020, one day before the March 10 anniversary of the crash. Investigators have tentatively concluded that the crash was caused by the aircraft's design. , the final report has not yet been published, but there is an interim report available.


Timeline


2016

* March 2016, The General Manager of Boeing's 737 MAX program and the former Chief Project Engineer on the 737 MAX program both approved a redesign of MCAS to increase its authority to move the aircraft's stabilizer at low speed, in order to address "stall characteristics" requirements necessary for FAA certification. Just hours after the approval for MCAS's redesign was granted, Boeing sought, and the FAA approved, the removal of references to MCAS from Boeing's flight crew operations manual (FCOM). The FAA officials who authorized this request remained unaware of the redesign of MCAS until after the crash of the Lion Air flight.


2018

* January 10, The Operational Evaluation Report of the
National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil The National Civil Aviation Agency (''Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil'' in Portuguese), also known as ANAC, is the Brazilian civil aviation authority, created in 2005. It is headquartered in the Edifício Parque Cidade Corporate in Brasília ...
(ANAC) mentions the MCAS. The FAA had approved Boeing's request to remove MCAS from differences tables and quick reference handbook (QRH); The Operational Evaluation Report prepared by Transport Canada contained the same table as ANAC's, except the reference to MCAS. * October 29, a 737 MAX 8 operating Lion Air Flight 610 crashed after take-off from Jakarta, killing all 189 on board. Boeing started redesigning the MCAS system right after the accident. * November 6, Boeing issued an Operations Manual Bulletin (OMB), describing a MAX-specific feature of the pitch trim system, warning that with "erroneous data, the pitch trim system can trim the stabilizer nose down in increments lasting up to 10 seconds" which "can be stopped and reversed with the use of the electric stabilizer trim switches but may restart 5 seconds after" and instructed pilots to counteract it by running the Runaway stabilizer and manual trim procedure. The background introduction of the bulletin states: "This bulletin directs flight crews to existing procedures to address this condition", and reminds operators to use the "existing procedures in the Runaway Stabilizer NNC on-Normal Conditions when the MAX reacts to a false stall detection. This was Boeing's first public announcement about MCAS, albeit not by name. * November 7, the FAA issued an
Emergency airworthiness directive An emergency Airworthiness Directive (EAD) is an airworthiness directive issued when an unsafe condition exists that requires immediate action by an aircraft owner or operator. EADs are published by a responsible authorities such as FOCA, EASA or F ...
to owners and operators, requiring revising the aircraft flight manual (AFM) "to provide the flight crew with runaway horizontal stabilizer trim procedures" when "repeated nose-down trim commands" are caused by "an erroneously high single AoA sensor", reinforcing the Boeing bulletin. The FAA directive warned that the problem was an "unsafe condition" that could result in "impact with terrain". The directive informs pilots of a new function specific to MAX models : "Note: The 737-8/-9 uses a Flight Control Computer command of pitch trim to improve longitudinal handling characteristics. In the event of erroneous Angle of Attack (AOA) input, the pitch trim system can trim the stabilizer nose down in increments lasting up to 10 seconds." The FAA had removed reference to MCAS from its draft EAD. * November 10, Boeing referred publicly for the first time to the MCAS by name in a Multi Operator Message to operators. The MCAS control law, a few lines of software code in the , could autonomously command nosedives, when even a single sensor failure resulted in bad data; MCAS was omitted from aircraft manuals and training, therefore flight crews had no knowledge of its existence or functioning until Boeing published a bulletin on November 6. * November 27, the
Allied Pilots Association The Allied Pilots Association (APA) is the labor union representing American Airlines pilots. APA was founded in 1963 by a group of American Airlines pilots who broke away from the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). The five founding pilots of ...
of
American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...
had a meeting with Boeing to express concerns with the MCAS effectiveness, and was unnerved by the airframer's responses. Union president Daniel Carey later said, "The huge error of omission is that Boeing failed to disclose the existence of MCAS to the pilot community. The final fatal mistake was, therefore, the absence of robust pilot training in the event that the MCAS failed". The Boeing officials acknowledged that they were considering some changes, for example preventing MCAS's repetitive activation to ensure that it only triggers once. * December 3, the FAA Seattle Certification Office reviewed an unpublished quantitative risk assessment
analysis Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (38 ...
of the MAX, prepared using the "Transport Aircraft Risk Assessment Methodology" (TARAM). The U.S.
House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. History The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure was formerly known as the Committee on Public Works a ...
made the report public just over a year later, on December 11, 2019. In the committee's words, the report concluded that "if left uncorrected, the MCAS design flaw in the 737 MAX could result in as many as 15 future fatal crashes over the life of the fleet", predicting 2900 deaths over 30 years. * December 17, in a presentation to the FAA, Boeing deflected blame and continued to assert that appropriate crew action would save the aircraft.


2019

* March 10, another 737 MAX 8 operating
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. On 10 March 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft ...
crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa airport, killing all 157 on board, due to a similar faulty MCAS, initiating a worldwide flight ban for the aircraft, starting with China on March 11. This was followed in quick succession the following day, March 12 by Singapore, India, Turkey, South Korea, the European Union, Australia and Malaysia. See timeline and list of groundings by other countries & regions. The US FAA issued an affirmation of the continued airworthiness of the 737 MAX. * March 13, the U.S. FAA was among the last to order the grounding of the 737 MAX, after claiming there was no reason: China had the most aircraft in service, 96, followed by the U.S. with 72, Canada with 39 and India with 21. The FAA issued an Emergency Order of Prohibition grounding Boeing 737 MAX airplanes, followed by a CANIC. * March 20, EASA and Transport Canada indicated that they would conduct their own reviews of Boeing's proposed software update. * March 27, Boeing unveiled a
software update A patch is a set of changes to a computer program or its supporting data designed to update, fix, or improve it. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs, with such patches usually being called bugfixes or bug fixes. Patches ...
to avoid MCAS errors, which was pending certification after already being developed and tested in-flight. * April 5, Boeing announced it was cutting 737 production by almost a fifth, to 42 aircraft monthly, anticipating a prolonged grounding, and had formed an internal design review committee. * May 13, Republican
Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...
Sam Graves Samuel Bruce Graves Jr. (born November 7, 1963) is an American politician serving as the United States representative for , serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district stretches across most of the northern third of ...
at the House Aviation subcommittee hearing, blamed the 737 MAX crashes on poor training of the Indonesian and Ethiopian pilots; he stated that "pilots trained in the U.S. would have been successful" in handling the emergencies on both jets. * June 18, IAG signed a
letter of intent A letter of intent (LOI or LoI, or Letter of Intent) is a document outlining the understanding between two or more parties which they intend to formalize in a contract, legally binding agreement. The concept is similar to a Heads of agreement ( ...
for 200 737 MAXs at the
Paris air show The Paris Air Show (french: Salon international de l'aéronautique et de l'espace de Paris-Le Bourget, Salon du Bourget) is a trade fair and air show held in odd years at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in north Paris, France. Organized by the French ...
, followed by Turkish
SunExpress SunExpress, is a Turkish-German airline based in Antalya. SunExpress was founded in October 1989 as a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa. It operates scheduled and chartered passenger flights to 90 destinations in 30 countries ...
and
Air Astana Air Astana ( kk, Эйр Астана, translit=Eir Astana; russian: Эйр Астана́, translit=) is an airline group based in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It operates scheduled international and domestic services on 64 routes from its main hub, Alma ...
later in the year. * June 26, flight tests for the FAA uncovered a data processing issue affecting the pilots' ability to perform the "runaway stabilizer" procedure to respond to MCAS errors. * October 30, Boeing CEO
Dennis Muilenburg Dennis A. Muilenburg (born 1964) is an American engineer, business executive, and the former president and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Boeing Company, a multinational aerospace and defense company. He was CEO from 2015 to 2019, when he ...
testified before
U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
committees, defending Boeing's
safety culture Safety culture is the collection of the beliefs, perceptions and values that employees share in relation to risks within an organization, such as a workplace or community. Safety culture is a part of organizational culture, and has been describe ...
and denying knowledge of internal messages in which Boeing's former chief technical pilot said he had unknowingly lied to regulators, and voiced his concerns on MCAS. * November 22, Boeing unveiled the first 737 MAX 10 flight-test aircraft. * November 26, the FAA revoked Boeing's
Organization Designation Authorization Established by FAA Order 8100.15() (image at right), the Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) program is the means by which the FAA grants airworthiness designee authority to organizations or companies. The regulations addressing the O ...
to issue airworthiness certificates for individual MAX airplanes. * December 17, Boeing confirmed the suspension of 737 MAX production from January 2020. * December 23, Dennis Muilenburg resigned, to be replaced by board chairman David Calhoun.


2020

* January 7, Boeing recommended "simulator training in addition to computer based training". * January 9, Boeing released previous messages in which it claimed no
flight simulator A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they rea ...
time was needed for pilots, and distanced itself from emails mocking airlines and the FAA, and criticizing the 737 MAX design. * January 13, David Calhoun became CEO, pledging to improve Boeing's commitment to safety and transparency, and estimating the return to service in mid-2020. * January 21, Boeing estimated the ungrounding could begin in mid-2020. * May 27, Boeing resumed production of the MAX at a "very gradual pace". * June 28 to July 1, the FAA conducted flight tests with a view to recertification of the 737 MAX. * September 16, the
U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
releases its concluding report, blaming Boeing and the FAA for lapses in the design, construction and certification. * September 30, a Boeing 737 MAX test aircraft was flown by FAA administrator
Stephen Dickson Stephen Dickson (16 February 1951 – 18 October 1991) was an American baritone who had an active career in operas and concerts from 1972 through 1990. He was active with the United States's most important opera companies during the 1980s, sharing ...
. * October 16, Patrick Ky, the executive director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, claimed that the updated 737 MAX reached the level of safety "high enough" for EASA. * November 18, the FAA issued a CANIC, subject to mandatory updates on each individual aircraft. Other regulators were expected to follow. * December 9, Brazilian low-cost carrier
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was the first airline to resume passenger service. * December 29,
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was the first US airline to resume commercial operations.


2021

*January 7, Boeing
settle Settle or SETTLE may refer to: Places * Settle, Kentucky, United States * Settle, North Yorkshire, a town in England ** Settle Rural District, a historical administrative district Music * Settle (band), an indie rock band from Pennsylvania * ''S ...
d to pay over $2.5 billion after being charged with
fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...
over the company's hiding of information from safety regulators: a criminal monetary penalty of $243.6 million, $1.77 billion of
damages At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...
to airline customers, and a $500 million crash-victim beneficiaries fund. *January 13, the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Aviation Authority authorized the MAX to resume flights in Trinidad and Tobago's airspace. *January 18, Transport Canada authorized the MAX to resume flights in Canadian airspace. Canadian operators must modify the aircraft to enable pilots to disable the
stick shaker A stick shaker is a mechanical device designed to rapidly and noisily vibrate the control yoke (the "stick") of an aircraft, warning the flight crew that an imminent aerodynamic stall has been detected. It is typically present on the majority of ...
when it is erroneously activated, if they are certain that they understand the underlying cause. * January 27, EASA cleared the MAX to resume service in Europe, subject to additional restrictions similar to those mandated by Transport Canada. Certain approaches requiring precision navigation were however not yet approved as EASA was awaiting data from Boeing as to the aircraft's ability to maintain the required performance in the event of sensor failures. * February 26, the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority lifted its ban on the MAX, accepting the return-to-service requirements set by the FAA. Australia was the first nation in the Asia-Pacific region to clear the aircraft to return to service. *April 9, Boeing announces that it has notified 16 airlines and the FAA of a potential electrical problem. Boeing refused to say how many planes were affected but four airlines grounded nearly 70 MAX aircraft. *August 26, the Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation rescinds its ban on MAX airplanes in India on the condition that they meet the requirements set by the FAA and EASA. *September 2, Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines reach an undisclosed out-of-court settlement, with Ethiopian Airlines announcing that the MAX could return to service in January 2022. The same day, the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia rescinded its ban on the MAX. *October 14, federal prosecutors indict former Boeing pilot Mark Forkner for fraud, stating he lied to the FAA in an attempt to obtain money from customers. Forkner is the first person to receive criminal charges in the investigation. * December 2, China's civil aviation regulator cleared the 94 jets stored by 11 carriers in China to fly again, before resuming deliveries in early 2022 of the ~ planes currently stored by Boeing, as over 180 countries out of 195 have lifted the grounding. However, the Civil Aviation Administration of China does not give a date as to when the aircraft can begin passenger operations. *December 28, Indonesia's ministry of transport removes its ban on the MAX.


2022

* February 1, Ethiopian Airlines cleared the MAX to return to service, with a demonstration flight being held the same day.


Type certification and return to service


Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System

MCAS on the 737 MAX was designed to mimic the pitching behavior of the previous generation of the series, the
Boeing 737 NG The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a narrow-body aircraft powered by two jet engines and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third generation derivative of the Boeing ...
, by pushing down the aircraft nose from an elevated
angle of attack In fluid dynamics, angle of attack (AOA, α, or \alpha) is the angle between a reference line on a body (often the chord line of an airfoil) and the vector representing the relative motion between the body and the fluid through which it is m ...
(AoA) by automatically adjusting the
horizontal stabilizer A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplan ...
and
trim tab Trim tabs are small surfaces connected to the trailing edge of a larger control surface on a boat or aircraft, used to control the trim of the controls, i.e. to counteract hydro- or aerodynamic forces and stabilise the boat or aircraft in a pa ...
. The system was intended to protect pilots from inadvertently flying at too steep an angle, which could result in a stall. Boeing, however, asserted that MCAS was not an anti-stall system, as the media widely reported it to be. Pilot movement of the control column on the MAX did not disable MCAS, unlike an earlier implementation of MCAS on the
U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
Boeing 767 Tanker. During certification of the MAX, Boeing requested and received permission from the FAA to remove a description of MCAS from the aircraft manual, leaving pilots unaware of the system when the airplane entered service in 2017. Boeing had also knowingly withheld knowledge, for at least a year before the Lion Air crash, that a system to warn of a possible AoA malfunction did not work as advertised. On November 6, 2018, Boeing published a supplementary service bulletin prompted by the first crash. The bulletin describes warnings triggered by erroneous AoA data could cause the pitch trim system to repeatedly push down the nose of the airplane and referred pilots to a "non-normal runaway trim" procedure as resolution, specifying a narrow window of a few seconds before the system would reactivate and pitch the nose down again. The FAA issued an emergency airworthiness directive, 2018-23-51, on November 7, 2018, requiring the bulletin's inclusion in the flight manuals, and that pilots immediately review the new information provided. Pilots wanted to know more about the issue, and Boeing responded by publicly naming MCAS for the first time in another message to airlines, noting that MCAS operates "without pilot input." In December 2018, the FAA had privately predicted that 15 MCAS-related accidents could result if the system was not redesigned. Boeing said it would revise MCAS software by April 2019 to correct any problems. The study was only revealed a year later at the December 2019 House of Representatives hearing. Stephen Dickson, who became FAA administrator during the accident investigations, testified at the hearing about his agency's response after the Lion Air accident, saying "the result was not satisfactory". After the March 2019 crash of
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. On 10 March 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft ...
, Ethiopian investigators determined that pilots had attempted the recommended recovery procedure. Boeing admitted that MCAS played a role in both accidents by activating when it received faulty data from an exterior AoA sensor. In 2020, an FAA
Airworthiness Directive An Airworthiness Directive (commonly abbreviated as AD) is a notification to owners and operators of certified aircraft that a known safety deficiency with a particular model of aircraft, engine, avionics or other system exists and must be correct ...
approved design changes for each MAX aircraft, requiring input from two AoA sensors for MCAS activation, elimination of the system's ability to repeatedly activate, and allowing pilots to override the system if necessary. Boeing also overhauled the
computer architecture In computer engineering, computer architecture is a description of the structure of a computer system made from component parts. It can sometimes be a high-level description that ignores details of the implementation. At a more detailed level, t ...
of the flight controls to provide greater redundancy. For each aircraft, the FAA would issue the
airworthiness certificate A standard certificate of airworthiness is a permit for commercial passenger or cargo operation, issued for an aircraft by the civil aviation authority in the state/nation in which the aircraft is registered. For other aircraft such as crop-spraye ...
, without delegation to Boeing, upon completion of an AoA sensor system test and a validation test flight. The FAA also required that all MAX pilots receive MCAS-related training in flight simulators by 2021. Before the accidents, simulator training on the MAX was not required, because the FAA accepted Boeing's position that the MAX was sufficiently similar to the previous 737 series, the NG.


Reactions


Financial and economic effects

The have had a deep financial effect on the aviation industry and a significant effect on the national economy of the United States. No airline took delivery of the MAX during the groundings. Boeing slowed MAX production to 42 aircraft per month and halted MAX production from January to May 2020. Boeing suffered directly through increased costs, loss of revenue, reputational damage, victim litigation, client compensation, reduced credit rating, and decreased stock value. In January 2020, the company estimated a loss of $18.4 billion for 2019, and it reported 183 canceled MAX orders for the year. In February 2020, the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
and resulting travel bans created further uncertainty for Boeing. In March 2020, news that Boeing was seeking a $60 billion
bailout A bailout is the provision of financial help to a corporation or country which otherwise would be on the brink of bankruptcy. A bailout differs from the term ''bail-in'' (coined in 2010) under which the bondholders or depositors of global sys ...
caused a steep drop in its stock price, though Boeing eventually received $17 billion in funds from the coronavirus stimulus. Its extensive supply chain providing aircraft components and flight simulators suffered similar losses, as did the aircraft services industry, including crew training, the aftermarket, and the aviation insurance industry. Major flight simulator supplier CAE increased production of simulators for the Boeing 737 MAX in anticipation of a jump in demand for pilot training in November 2019. At the time of the recertification by the FAA in November 2020, Boeing's net orders for the 737 MAX were down by more than 1,000 aircraft, 448 orders canceled and 782 orders removed from the backlog because they are no longer certain enough to rely on; the total estimated direct costs of the MAX groundings were US$20billion and indirect costs over US$60billion. On January 7, 2021, Boeing
settle Settle or SETTLE may refer to: Places * Settle, Kentucky, United States * Settle, North Yorkshire, a town in England ** Settle Rural District, a historical administrative district Music * Settle (band), an indie rock band from Pennsylvania * ''S ...
d to pay over $2.5 billion after being charged with
fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...
.


Popular culture

In September 2021, Frontline PBS released "Boeing's Fatal Flaw", a documentary about how Boeing ignored critical safety issues with the 737 MAX resulting in the crash of two airliners. In February 2022, Netflix released '' Downfall: The Case Against Boeing'', a documentary about the two plane crashes directed by
Rory Kennedy Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy (born December 12, 1968) is an American documentary filmmaker who is the eleventh and youngest child of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel. Kennedy has made documentary films that center on social is ...
.


See also

*
Qantas Flight 72 Qantas Flight 72 (QF72) was a scheduled flight from Singapore Changi Airport to Perth Airport by an Airbus A330. On 7 October 2008, the flight made an emergency landing at Learmonth Airport near the town of Exmouth, Western Australia following ...
: data failure causing pitch down, severely injuring passengers *
Air France Flight 447 Air France Flight 447 (AF447 or AFR447) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France. On 1 June 2009, inconsistent airspeed indications led to the pilots inadvertently stalling the Airbus A330 ser ...
: fatal accident following data and pitot tube failure and autopilot disablement *
Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 (also known as the Poldercrash or the Schiphol Polderbaan incident) was a passenger flight that crashed during landing at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, the Netherlands, on 25 February 2009, resulting in the deaths of n ...
: Dutch authorities have reopened the accident probe into this 2009 accident involving the prior generation 737-800 series aircraft. * Boeing 787 Dreamliner battery fires: the aircraft was grounded in 2013 for modifications to mitigate or contain the risk of inflight fire. *
Boeing 737 rudder issues During the 1990s, a series of issues affecting the rudder of Boeing 737 passenger aircraft resulted in multiple incidents. In two separate accidents, pilots lost control of their aircraft due to a sudden and unexpected rudder movement, and the re ...


Notes


References


Further reading

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Boeing 2019 in aviation * April 2019 events March 2019 events Boeing 737