After the second crash of a Boeing 737 MAX aircraft both Australia and Singapore suspended operations of all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in and out of Changi airport on Tuesday. Indonesia and China also grounded their fleets of the US plane manufacturer’s latest model after it suffered the second fatal crash in less than five months.
The scare has wiped billions of dollars off the market value of the world’s biggest aircraft company, as the Boeing Co shares closed five per cent down on Monday having fallen by as much as 13.5 per cent at one point.
The United States says will mandate that Boeing Co implement the design changes by April that have been in the works for months for the 737 MAX 8 fleet.
An Ethiopian Airlines flight bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 aboard and raising questions about the safety of the new variant of the industry workhorse, one of which also crashed in Indonesia in October, killing 189 people.
Boeing confirmed the Federal Aviation Administration’s announcement late Monday that it will deploy a software upgrade across the 737 MAX 8 fleet “in the coming weeks” as pressure mounted.
The company confirmed it had for several months “been developing a flight control software enhancement for the 737 MAX, designed to make an already safe aircraft even safer.”
The FAA said the changes will “provide reduced reliance on procedures associated with required pilot memory items.”
The FAA also said Boeing will “update training requirements and flight crew manuals to go with the design change” to an automated protection system called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System or MCAS. The changes also include MCAS activation and angle of attack signal enhancements.
The FAA said in the notice made public that external reports are drawing similarities between the crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia.”However, this investigation has just begun and to date we have not been provided data to draw any conclusions or take any actions,” according to the Continued Airworthiness Notification to the International Community for Boeing 737 MAX 8 operators.
US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao told reporters regulators would not hesitate to act if they find a safety issue.
“If the FAA identifies an issue that affects safety, the department will take immediate and appropriate action,” Chao told reporters. “I want people to be assured that we take these incidents, these accidents very seriously.”
Media outlets have reported that Boeing has for months planned design changes after the Lion Air crash in Indonesia but the FAA notice was the first public confirmation.
Canada’s transport minister also said he will not hesitate to act once the cause of the crash is known.
Two Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein and Richard Blumenthal called for the immediate grounding of the aircraft, as did Paul Hudson, the president of FlyersRights.org and a member of the FAA Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee.
Tags: Boeing 737 Max Fleet
