Boeing 737 Max Design Changes Win Preliminary FAA Approval

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted preliminary approval to proposed design changes to the Boeing 737 Max following two deadly crashes that killed nearly 350 people.

The changes, including a software patch to one of the plane’s major operating systems, are meant to address the “unsafe conditions” that led to the downing of the two flights. The public now has 45 days to review the proposed changes before the FAA issues a final decision, meaning it would be late October, at the earliest, before the Boeing 737 Max could take flight again.

Crashes Led to Changes

On the morning of Oct. 29, 2018, a Lion Air flight took off from Jakarta, Indonesia. The Boeing 737 Max began experiencing problems almost immediately after takeoff and continued to malfunction until crashing 13 minutes in, according to the final crash report.

The plane’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, automatically activated repeatedly, forcing the plane’s nose down, according to Business Insider.

Information from the flight recorder indicated the pilots struggled to wrest control of the aircraft. It crashed into the Java Sea. None of the 189 people on board survived. The Lion Air 737 had been in service for less than three months.

The crash was the first major accident involving a Boeing 737 Max, which was marketed as an “updated version of the 737,” according to BBC News.

On the morning of March 10, 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines flight took off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The doomed flight’s cockpit voice recorder showed similar issues as Lion Air’s. The Ethiopian Airlines plane, in service for just four months, began having problems almost immediately after its wheels went up, New York Magazine reported.

The MCAS system suddenly activated, pushing the plane’s nose downward. This time, the pilots followed the emergency instructions provided by Boeing and the FAA after the Lion Air disaster — to disable the plane’s electronic trim system. Still, the pilots struggled to regain control of the Boeing 737 Max and after just six minutes in the air, the aircraft slammed down in a farm field, killing all 157 people on board.

Investigators later determined that in both cases, a bad sensor triggered the MCAS system.

All Boeing 737 Max aircraft were grounded after the second crash.

Investigation Led to Proposed Changes

According to The Washington Post, over the last 18 months, the FAA has had more than 40 engineers, inspectors, pilots, and technical support staff investigating the Boeing 737 Max, the crash data, and Boeing’s proposed changes to the aircraft. The review included 50 hours of flight or simulator tests and more than 4,000 hours of analysis.

The primary focus centered on the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System. The MCAS was designed to compensate for the Boeing 737 Max’s larger engines, “which could cause the plane’s nose to tip upward, leading to a stall — in that situation, MCAS could automatically point the nose down to negate the effect of the engine size,” according to Business Insider. A single sensor could activate the MCAS, in the original design.

A report by the Joint Authorities Technical Review panel, a group of aviation safety experts, was also commissioned by the FAA after the Boeing 737 Max crashes. It concluded that “Boeing withheld critical details about MCAS from the FAA” and “the company did not fully explain what the MCAS systems would do nor how forcefully it would push the nose of the plane down,” NPR said.

Proposed Boeing 737 Max Changes

There are four proposed changes under consideration by the FAA. First is a software “patch” that would reconfigure the MCAS to require data from two sensors, not one, to trigger the system. The sensors measure the angle at which the plane is flying. Second, if the data between the sensors varies by more than a certain amount, the MCAS would be disabled for the remainder of the flight. Third, when the MCAS is activated, it would recalibrate to push the nose down at a more gradual rate. And finally, the system would be changed to allow only one MCAS activation per flight. Some wiring changes have also been proposed.

Per FAA procedure, the public now has 45 days to the proposed changes and offer feedback to the agency. The FAA must review all the feedback before issuing its final decision on the proposed changes to the Boeing 737 Max.

Join a Free Boeing 737 Max 8 Lawsuit Investigation

If you took a domestic flight on Southwest Airlines or American Airlines between Oct. 1, 2017 and March 13, 2019 and your flight was on a Boeing MAX 8 aircraft, you may be eligible to join the Boeing MAX 8 class action lawsuit investigation.

Only personal travel, not business travel, is relevant to this investigation.

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