The world’s biggest plane maker faced escalating pressure on Monday after Ethiopia pointed to parallels between its crash and one in Indonesia, sharpening focus on the safety of software installed in Boeing’s 737 MAX planes. Boeing Co’s safety analysis of a new flight control system on 737 MAX jets had several crucial flaws, the Seattle Times reported.
Chennai:
- Boeing’s safety analysis of the flight control system called MCAS (Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System) understated the power of this system.
- MCAS is the automated pitch-control system known to have been involved in the Lion Air crash in Indonesia last fall and may or may not have played a part in this month’s Ethiopian Airlines crash
THE SAFETY ANALYSIS
- Understated the power of the new flight control system, which was designed to swivel the horizontal tail to push the nose of the plane down to avert a stall. When the planes later entered service, MCAS was capable of moving the tail more than four times farther than was stated in the initial safety analysis document
- Failed to account
- for how the system could reset itself each time a pilot responded, thereby missing the potential impact of the system repeatedly
- pushing the airplane’s nose downward
- Assessed a failure of the system as one level below “catastrophic.” But even that “hazardous” danger level should have precluded activation of the system based on input from a single sensor—and yet that’s how it was designed
BOEING’S RESPONSE
- Last Monday Boeing said it would deploy a software upgrade to the 737 MAX 8, a few hours after the FAA said it would mandate “design changes” in the aircraft by April
- A Boeing spokesman said 737 MAX was certified in accordance with the identical FAA requirements and processes that have governed certification of all previous new airplanes and derivatives. The FAA concluded that MCAS on 737 MAX met all certification and regulatory requirements
- Boeing has halted deliveries of its best-selling model, one intended to be the industry standard but now under a shadow
BUSINESS IMPLICATIONS
- There were more than 300 MAX airplanes in operation at the time of the Ethiopian crash, and nearly 5,000 more on order
- After a 10 percent drop last week that wiped nearly $25 billion off its market share, Boeing stock slid another 3.5 percent on Monday to $365.60 in early pre-market trade
BOEING 737 MAX SPECIFICATIONS
- 737 MAX is the newest addition to Boeing’s family of single-aisle airplanes
- It is the fastest-selling airplane in Boeing history with about 5,000 orders from more than 100 customers worldwide
- Worldwide the MAX has flown more than 70,000 flights
- There have been more than 350 MAX aircraft put into service in the last two years
- Currently, there are four commercial variants (MAX 7, 8, 9, 10), with a seating capacity that varies between 172 and 230