Is the Boeing 737 MAX safe now?
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Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency approved the MAX as safe to fly passengers.
Is the Boeing 737 MAX safe now?
The Boeing 737 Max has undergone significant testing and scrutiny. In the wake of two accidents in 2018 and 2019, which resulted in the tragic loss of 346 lives.
The first accident occurred in October 2018. When a Lion Air flight crashed into the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia.
The second accident occurred in March 2019, when an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Both accidents linked to a malfunction of the aircraft’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). Designed to prevent the aircraft from stalling.
In the aftermath of these accidents, the Boeing 737 Max became grounded worldwide. Furthermore, a series of investigations launched to determine the cause of the crashes. And identify any potential design or operational issues with the aircraft ensued. Boeing since worked tirelessly to address the issues identified by these investigations. And the larger 30,000 foot question about how the might Boeing operates. Will they cut corners in the future? Penny pinch? Or will Boeing reach back to its heart. ANd a as a result, produce real innovation again? Who knows? Now, what occured included completely redesigning the MCAS system. Moreover, to prevent it from overriding the pilot’s control of the aircraft. Thus, improving pilot training on the aircraft, and enhancing communication with airlines and regulators.
Boeing has also conducted extensive testing of the aircraft to ensure its safety and reliability. This testing included thousands of hours of flight testing, as well as extensive analysis of the aircraft’s systems and components. In addition, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other regulators conducted their own independent testing and review of the aircraft. And required Boeing to make significant changes to the aircraft’s design and operation. Before it is allowed to return to service.
If Congress doesn’t mandate Boeing 737 MAX safety retrofits, Europe will
Thanks to the two recent crashes of Boeing’s 737 Max, catastrophic problems within Boeing itself—as well as questions regarding the effectiveness of the oversight of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)—have become a consistent topic of public concern.
Although the 737 Max airplanes have all since become grounded, this is just the first step in a long process to get Boeing’s credibility back, and provide the safety needed to use the technology in place. Now they are flying once again! Let’s hope they are safe.
The cause of the crashes was found to be mainly the malfunction of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation system (MCAS) technology implemented on these new 737 Max aircrafts. The erroneous data coming from the sole angle of attack (AOA) sensor that the MCAS takes its information from caused the system to overreact and make the plane nosedive. While the 737 Max does happen to become equipped with two AOA sensors. Moreover, the MCAS becomes only programmed to retrieve information from one at a time. As a result, which is highly problematic. It has proven to be quite unsafe to solely have one source of data for the MCAS, as failure of this source leads to a failure of the entire system and aircraft.
In order to get these planes airborne again, Boeing needs to begin by revamping the MCAS technology that put its aircrafts in such dangerous situations. By changing the technology to rely on both AOA sensors that the 737 Max already became equipped with. Rather than only feeding information to MCAS from one of the sensors, Boeing can reduce the probability of a singular sensor failure resulting in an accident.
The two sensors will keep each other in check!
As the MCAS will shut down if there is a large discrepancy between the readings from the sensors. This major software update will provide Boeing with the assurance that the MCAS is receiving the right information, as well as reacting correctly to this information, unless the unlikely situation where both sensors happen to fail occurs, and both output the same wrong information. In this case, the pilots will have to take over, maneuvering the aircraft to the correct angle, which is precisely what they tried to do in the two crashes. Despite their efforts, it was extremely difficult to override the system in these particular instances.
The new update to MCAS will allow for easy pilot maneuverability when it makes a substantial error, making sure there is a strong backup plan for this unlikely emergency scenario. This will provide peace of mind to pilots flying the 737 Max, as well as passengers on the aircrafts, who now know that their safety does not depend on a singular, error-prone source.
Now everyone wants one! Boeing 737 MAX Production to Rise. It Should Spur the Stock. | Barron’s (barrons.com), Boeing plans to increase 737 MAX production rates ‘very soon’ | Fox Business
United clearly believes in the plane! All about the Boeing 737 MAX: Safety, status and more (united.com)
Is the Boeing 737 MAX safe now?
Is the Boeing 737 MAX the Safest Modern Airliner? – AeroXplorer.com
