Ethiopian Air ET302, Boeing 737 crashes - 157 souls - 10 March 2019

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Boeing’s chief executive said the company is making “steady progress” toward the certification of a software update required to lift a worldwide grounding of its 737 Max jets.

CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a video that Boeing completed an engineering test flight Tuesday using updated software. Investigators have concluded that the anti-stalling feature — the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System — was activated in the final minutes of a doomed Ethiopian Airlines flight last month. MCAS also is thought to have played a role in the October 2018 crash of a Boeing 737 Max in Indonesia. The crashes killed 346 passengers and crew members.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...systems/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.33e4c540e679
 
A rift between the U.S. and Canada is growing over how to ensure the safety of Boeing Co.’s BA +0.99% grounded 737 MAX planes, as Ottawa’s focus on additional pilot training could lead to a delay in getting the jet back in the air.

Canada’s transport minister has signaled that his government could require additional simulator training for pilots of the 737 MAX. That possibility threatens to widen the gap between plans being developed by U.S. authorities to put the planes into service and those of other countries, according to industry officials and others participating in or tracking the process.

“Simulators are the very best way from a training point of view to go over exactly what could happen in a real way and to react properly to it,” Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Wednesday. “It’s not going to be a question of pulling out an iPad and spending an hour on it.”

U.S.-Canada Rift Widens Over Training for Boeing 737 MAX Pilots

I’m glad Canada aviation authority is being sensible. The U.S FAA are an absolute disgrace.
 
Engine manufacturer CFM International have identified a potential problem with two versions of their Leap engines. The Leap-1A and Leap-1B, as used on the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320neo aircraft, have been found to be suffering from coking of fuel nozzles at a much faster rate than anticipated. CFM are ordering inspections of potentially affected equipment by carriers.

https://simpleflying.com/boeing-737-max-engine-investigation/

These engines may be more efficient but have been more trouble than they are worth especially on the Max.
 
gregjrichards said:
A rift between the U.S. and Canada is growing over how to ensure the safety of Boeing Co.’s BA +0.99% grounded 737 MAX planes, as Ottawa’s focus on additional pilot training could lead to a delay in getting the jet back in the air.

Canada’s transport minister has signaled that his government could require additional simulator training for pilots of the 737 MAX. That possibility threatens to widen the gap between plans being developed by U.S. authorities to put the planes into service and those of other countries, according to industry officials and others participating in or tracking the process.

“Simulators are the very best way from a training point of view to go over exactly what could happen in a real way and to react properly to it,” Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Wednesday. “It’s not going to be a question of pulling out an iPad and spending an hour on it.”

U.S.-Canada Rift Widens Over Training for Boeing 737 MAX Pilots

I’m glad Canada aviation authority is being sensible. The U.S FAA are an absolute disgrace.
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ITA! And we also have to bundle in the airlines too. Due to a shortage of pilots the RAA (Regional Airlines Association) has been fighting to reduce the current requirement that pilots log 1500 hours of air time to 1000 in order to step up the pace of replacing pilots who are retiring. They also want financial aid for training pilots but at the same time don't want to increase salaries.

And for 15 months President Trump did not nominate a new director of the FAA after Michael Huerta stepped down in 2018. He finally chose Stephen Dickson, a former airlines executive in March, after the second 737 MAX crash. Currently Dan Elwell is the Acting Administrator. The government shutdown earlier this year also caused a backlog in maintenence inspections and eliminated an anonymous tip line for pilots to report issues with planes and other pilots.

And let's not leave out Congress, who wants the airlines and plane manufacturers to regulate and police themselves in some areas:
Despite those worries, Congress has continued to insist that the FAA hand off part of its regulatory work to airlines and manufacturers — through a program that allows companies like Boeing to designate their own employees, whom FAA certifies to act on its behalf — to sign off on compliance with federal safety standards for a host of items. Lawmakers most recently included such provisions when they reauthorized the FAA last October.

Under the program, the FAA is supposed to retain responsibility for certifying that a company's approval meets federal standards. But DOT's inspector general said in a 2015 audit that the agency didn't know whether it had enough staff in the largest FAA office that oversees this work — the one that deals with Boeing.

In a separate 2012 report, the department's IG found that agency managers' alleged close relationship with Boeing was creating unrest among FAA employees. Some of those workers charged that their supervisors "have not always supported ... employee efforts to hold Boeing accountable," according to a copy of the report that was earlier obtained by Bloomberg.
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Air disasters raise worries of an ‘eroding’ FAA

I do support the investigation into the FAA's part in certifying the 737 MAX - don't get me wrong. They shoulder the brunt by certifying the plane. But it's more complicated and far reaching than just the FAA and Boeing allowing a plane with faulty software to carry hundreds of people IMO.

And I'm glad that other countries, like Canada, aren't hampered by U.S. politics.

Pilots worry national shortage puts passengers in danger
Trump Nominates New Leader As FAA Is Under Fire After 2 Crashes
Schumer: FAA weakened by lack of leadership, executive orders
Air disasters raise worries of an ‘eroding’ FAA
 
Boeing is set to release its financial report for the first three months of the year. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv are forecasting that earnings per share fell 11%, compared to the same quarter last year. Experts had previously forecast that Boeing's quarterly earnings would increase 18%.

And the cost of the crisis is probably even worse than the big profit decline suggests.

The March 10 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet prompted the worldwide grounding of all Max jets, which is Boeing's best seller. Then on March 14, Boeing stopped delivering the jets to airlines. That will cost Boeing significant revenue, because most of the cost of a plane is paid at the time it's delivered.

Not surprisingly, analysts have slashed their share price forecast for the current quarter by more than half.

How badly is the 737 Max crisis affecting Boeing's bottom line? - CNN
 
Over a month after the Ethiopian Airlines flight crash, families of the victims have yet to receive their loved ones’ remains and belongings as local authorities are preventing rescue workers from collecting them.

People close to one of the victims and the head of ZAKA, an Israeli emergency response organization that collects human remains for burial, each described the situation around the impact site as a confusing mess, with human remains and personal effects exposed to the elements and seemingly open to looters and animals, but not to official search efforts.

“What I personally found on the crash site left me shocked. Among many things, I collected legible business cards, a vaccine booklet, and an agenda. Each of these had vividly readable names and surnames, and were just left on the surface, completely unattended,” a family member of one of the victims wrote in an email to The Times of Israel.

The relative said she had felt compelled to visit the impact site after receiving distressing and often contradictory updates about the search efforts. “To my dismay, we also found what looked like remains of human bones, which were then handed over to the guardians in the military tent, just outside the site of the crash,” she said. The family member added that these remains were then not treated delicately by the guards but were “wrapped using some mere plastic found on the ground.”

The ZAKA chief said his organization had even offered to purchase the impact site in order to gain access to it, but were rebuffed by Ethiopia.

Weeks after plane crash, Ethiopia still blocking access to victims’ remains
 
The day after Ethiopia's minister of transportation released a preliminary crash report on Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, four Boeing employees called an Federal Aviation Administration whistleblower hotline that allows employees and the public to report aviation safety issues.

A source familiar with the matter says the hotline submissions involve current and former Boeing employees describing issues related to the angle of attack sensor -- a vane that measures the plane's angle in the air -- and the anti-stall system called MCAS, which is unique to Boeing's newest plane.

Source: Boeing whistleblowers report 737 Max problems to FAA - CNNPolitics
 
Boeing did not tell its largest 737 Max customer that a standard safety feature designed to warn pilots about malfunctioning sensors had been deactivated on the jets. The Wall Street Journal first reported the story.

Southwest Airlines was unaware that the standard safety alert was turned off. The alert informed pilots if a sensor, known as an “angle-of-attack vane,” was transmitting faulty data about the pitch of the plane’s nose.

Boeing had installed a new anti-stall system on the 737 Max and made the safety alert -- which was included in previous versions of the 737 -- optional. The alert was operational only if the carrier bought additional safety features.

Boeing didn't tell Southwest that a safety feature on the 737 Max was turned off

This is absolutely outrageous Southwest must be really annoyed with Boeing. What a way to treat your best customer. Shocking.
 
The CEO of Boeing defended the company's safety record on Monday and declined to take more than partial blame for two deadly crashes of 737 Max that killed 346 people.

Addressing shareholders, Chairman and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said that the company has nearly finished an update that 'will make the airplane even safer' and took reporters' questions for the first time since accidents involving the 737 Max in Indonesia and Ethiopia that plunged Boeing into its deepest crisis in years.

Muilenburg said that Boeing followed the same design and certification process it has always used to build safe planes, and he denied that the Max was rushed to market.

Boeing CEO defends safety record amid 2 deadly crashes | Daily Mail Online
 
This comprehensive article, while lengthy, is extremely readable. It covers the story of the Max, both crashes and includes things done and not done by Boeing in the name of expediency. I'd choose to fly with Airbus any day in preference to Boeing, and I'm sure many others will feel the same after reading this.

The many human errors that brought down the Boeing 737 Max
 
Boeing sure is on a roll, well, a skid to be more precise.

A Boeing 737 was landing at a naval airport when it skidded off the runway and ended up in the St John’s river. All passengers and crew have escaped with their lives.

The Miami Air Interntional plane, believed to be chartered by the US military, was landing at a navy airport after a flight from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

“The plane was not submerged. Every person is alive and accounted for,” the Jacksonville sheriff’s office said on Twitter.

Passengers escape after plane skids off runway into river in Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville crash.jpg

Two passengers sustained "very minor injuries".

Plane skids off runway into water; only minor injuries

Another event that Boeing could have done without.
 
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NAS Jacksonville crash landing: What we know & don't know

  • There were 136 passengers and 7 crew members on board, according to preliminary details released by Navy officials. A Jacksonville Fire & Rescue Department spokesperson said 21 people were taken to the hospital, but no one was critically injured.
***

I'm seeing reports this crash was probably weather related. moo
 
JudgeJudi said:
Boeing sure is on a roll, well, a skid to be more precise.

A Boeing 737 was landing at a naval airport when it skidded off the runway and ended up in the St John’s river. All passengers and crew have escaped with their lives.

The Miami Air Interntional plane, believed to be chartered by the US military, was landing at a navy airport after a flight from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

“The plane was not submerged. Every person is alive and accounted for,” the Jacksonville sheriff’s office said on Twitter.

Passengers escape after plane skids off runway into river in Jacksonville, Florida

View attachment 182565

Two passengers sustained "very minor injuries".

Plane skids off runway into water; only minor injuries

Another event that Boeing could have done without.
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It is terrible the pets that are trapped onboard who have very likely died and they cannot be unloaded due to safety concerns.
 
gregjrichards said:
It is terrible the pets that are trapped onboard who have very likely died and they cannot be unloaded due to safety concerns.
Click to expand...

They did finally recover them.

Pets on board Boeing 737 plane crash in Jacksonville to be cremated

NAS JAX said on Facebook:

"Update on the pets aboard the aircraft: A dog and two cats belonging to a military family have been recovered from the aircraft. Those who were involved in this sad tasking performed the recovery in the most dignified way possible with the base veterinarian on site to ensure all protocols were followed. The animals will be cremated through a local company. Every possible avenue to rescue these animals was pursued following the incident. One animal that traveled in the cabin was safely removed by its owner."
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Heartbreaking story of parents who lost their only children in this crash. Their daughter-in-law is expecting. :(

“Ike and Susan Riffel’s loss is unimaginable. Their two sons – their only children – Melvin and Bennett, were killed together on Ethiopian Flight 302 on March 10 this year. When Susan received the phone call from the airline, all she could ask in her shock was “both our boys?”

But there was no word from Boeing, whose brand new aircraft, the 737 Max, almost certainly caused the crash.

“Ethiopian Airlines reached out with condolences and offer of assistance,” Susan said. “And yet nothing from Boeing who created the plane?"
Boeing yet to reach out to grieving parents following 737 Max crash
 
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