Boeing 737-MAX Disasters by Matt Schnaare

Boeing 737-MAX Disasters by Matt Schnaare

On October 29th, 2018, Lion Air JT610, a brand new Boeing 737-MAX 8, crashed into the Java Sea outride Jakarta, Indonesia. The fatal accident killed all 189 passengers and crew onboard the aircraft. During the following investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), attention was brought to the abnormal pitch behavior of the aircraft as recorded per the Blackbox. Focus was soon brought upon Boeing’s new Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, it MCAS. As a result from false readings for the 737’s PITOT static port, a universal system that provides readouts for crucial information such as pitch and altitude, caused an abnormality in MCAS that forced the plane to pitch downwards, inevitably crashing the plane into the Java Sea. Despite the flaw in MCAS, the general consensus of this accident was pilot error due to the lack of knowledge of the MCAS system and the inability to prevent MCAS from pitching down by cutting the STAB trim switches located below the throttles. While some attention was brought to Boeing for both MCAS itself and Boeing’s apart lack of information of MCAS to pilots, the 737-MAX continued service for that time being. On March 10th, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines ET302, another brand new Boeing 737-MAX 8, crashed south of Addis Ababa. The accident shared very similar characteristics to JT610. Attention was brought again to Boeing’s MCAS system. As a result, The Civil Aviation Administration of China grounded the Boeing 737-MAX family. Soon, Europe followed. On March 13th, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that the 737-MAX will effectively be grounded in the United States. This move has been unprecedented since the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 groundings if 1979. Further investigation of Boeing indicated that Boeing sold the 737-MAX advertising it as an aircraft that needed no further pilot training for the 737NG series. Boeing’s QRH manuals of the 737-MAX lacked any mention on MCAS and how to disable it. Furthermore, after Boeing’s 737-MAX service bulletin of JT610 on how to counter MCAS, Ethiopian pilots were informed the STAB trim cutoff. This procedure was initiated in ET302, however this failed to counteract MCAS. The 737-MAX has been grounded for well over 25 weeks now making it by far the longest grounding of any commercial airliner in history. Major American carriers of the 737-MAX are Southwest Airlines (with 34 in service and 246 on order, the largest operator of the 737-MAX worldwide), American Airlines (24 in service and 76 on order), and United Airlines (14 in service 121 on order). The reputation of the 737-MAX has been virtually ruined with several airlines attempting to rebrand the aircraft to avoid association with such an aircraft. Many airlines, understandably upset at Boeing for the sudden loss of their fleet, are in Europe negotiating with competitor Airbus for deals on their competing A320neo and A220-300. One of these airlines is Southwest, which has been “proudly all Boeing” aircraft for it’s entire existence. With each update from the FAA and Boeing seemingly adding delays to the recertification of the aircraft, it is unknown what the fate of the 737-MAX program will be.




Questions :




How responsible is Boeing for these accidents?




What do you think the future for the 737-MAX is?




Would you get on a 737-MAX?