Troubled 737 Max Nearing Takeoff As FAA Review Of Jetliner Nearly Complete

Enlarge this image

A Boeing 737 MAX jet, piloted by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Steve Dickson, prepares to land at Boeing Field following a test flight Wednesday, Sept. 30 in Seattle. The MAX was grounded worldwide in early March 2019 after the second of two fatal accidents that together killed 346 people aboard almost-new aircraft.

Elaine Thompson/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Elaine Thompson/AP

Business
Boeing 737 Max Software Fix And Report On Fatal Crash Expected This Week

Coronavirus Updates
Citing ‘Devastating’ Pandemic Impact, Boeing To Lay Off 7,000 More Workers

National
Congressional Inquiry Faults Boeing And FAA Failures For Deadly 737 Max Plane Crashes

Boeing and the FAA have both been widely criticized for how the 737 Max was developed and initially certified. A lengthy congressional inquiry found «a disturbing pattern of technical miscalculations and troubling management misjudgments by Boeing, and «grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA.

That and other investigations found a «culture of concealment at Boeing, and many critics say the airplane manufacturer rushed the development of the 737 Max, cutting corners along the way as management pressured engineers, putting profits over safety.

Boeing initially downplayed the system’s flaws and suggested pilot error was more responsible for the first crash. An FAA analysis found that additional crashes were probable if the flight control system wasn’t fixed, but nonetheless, the agency allowed the plane to keep flying, and it was among the last aviation safety regulators in the world to ground the Max after the Ethiopian crash.

Boeing has spent the past two years developing software fixes for the automated system and addressing other problems with the 737 Max.

Administrator Dickson, a former Delta Air Lines pilot and executive, has said repeatedly that he would not sign off on recertifying the Max until he flew the plane himself, reviewed the fixes and felt comfortable putting his own family on the plane.

Regulators in Canada, Europe and elsewhere are conducting their own safety analyses of Boeing’s fixes to the 737 Max and have completed test flights. Patrick Ky, executive director of the European Union’s Aviation Safety Agency, said last month that he is satisfied with the technical changes Boeing has made to the 737 Max, telling Bloomberg, «Our analysis is showing that this is safe, and the level of safety reached is high enough for us.

European approval for the commercial jetliner to fly passengers again is expected before the end of the year.