It’s been 18 months since the Boeing 737 Max was allowed to re-start passenger flights, but it’s still safe for some families who lost their loved ones in two fatal plane crashes. Some say they are worried about sex.
With the help of industry insiders working at Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration, families are trying to pay attention to these safety concerns. They say authorities did not thoroughly investigate production in Boeing. And they insist that the system that warns pilots about in-flight problems must be overhauled.
They are cutting out their work for them. Max makes about 2,400 almost benign flights worldwide each day. Most government investigations have been completed and laws and regulations have changed, but families are under pressure, encouraged by the help of industry experts and driven by the desire to avoid further tragedy.
“I have two twin girls, but given how many 737s there are, it’s inevitable that one of them will fly at some point,” said Javier de Luis, whose sister Graziella de Luisy Ponce died. I am saying. Second maximum crash. “That’s my motivation.”
In total, 346 people were killed in the crash. He died first in Indonesia in late 2018 and then in Ethiopia a few months later. Max was allowed to fly again in late 2020 after Boeing made changes to the plane, including the flight control system MCAS behind the crash. The company’s CEO has resigned, Boeing has agreed to a $ 2.5 billion settlement with the Justice Department, and Congress has passed a law that imposes major changes to FAA oversight.
But the family says they should do more.
“We didn’t want to be an aeronautical engineer.”
Earlier last year, Seattle FAA safety engineer Joe Jacobsen wrote to Michael Stumo and Nadia Milleron, who helped organize the families of the victims of the accident after her daughter Samya Stumo died in a second accident. rice field. A few weeks after his retirement, Jacobsen said there was a problem with FAA’s culture, including a manager who excluded experienced FAA engineers from meetings for convenience.
He also apologized for doing nothing more to change the agency from the inside and provided ideas for improving Max’s safety, including requesting an update of the onboard alarm system. did.
“We’ve been overwhelmed by everything since the crash,” Stumo said in a recent interview. “So it took us a while to understand what is happening at FAA and how important it is to know everything he knows. Is trying to catch up every day. We didn’t want to be an aeronautical engineer. “
The rules governing the pilot warning system were updated more than 10 years ago for the first time since 1977 to better organize such warnings. However, the FAA granted Boeing an exception to Max after determining that the system was not substantially different from Max’s predecessor’s system. This is because the old plane was exempt from the new requirements.
Jacobsen, who is currently working closely with his family, argues that Max should meet those modern standards. On that plane, he said, pilots may need to look at multiple locations in the cockpit to diagnose a problem when it occurs. Boeing’s other planes meet current regulations with a display known as EICAS that provides an engine display and crew alert system, or a more centralized and descriptive interface.
Boeing and some independent safety experts claim that the existing system has proven safe for decades in the 737 family. Making such significant changes to complex systems also requires thorough pilot testing and costly retraining. Many of the pilots have many years of experience with 737 aircraft.
“I believe the 737 is safe. I believe the crew’s warning system is safe,” Boeing’s senior vice president Mike Fleming, who oversees Max’s return to service, told reporters this month. rice field. “We believe that commonality is one of the key safety features of our family of 737 planes.”
However, the company may be forced to upgrade to at least the largest Max variant, the 737 Max 10. Under the Aviation Safety Act passed in 2020, Congress demanded that planes not certified by December 2022 be warned of even stricter crew. rule. Two medium-sized versions of Max have been approved to begin passenger flight in late 2020. The minimum Max 7 will be certified by the end of this year, but it is less likely that Max 10 will meet that deadline. .. Only Congress can approve the extension.
Jacobsen and his family aren’t the only ones calling for overhaul. A Senate Trade Commission Report Two other insiders announced in December, a former Boeing engineer and a current FAA engineer, said the latest warning system could make Max a safer plane and perhaps even prevent a collision. , Other experts disagree. A former Boeing engineer quoted in the report presented the committee with a proposal to upgrade Max’s system this year. This is approved by Jacobsen.
Former Boeing managers Jacobsen and Ed Pearson, who have worked with their families for many years, also said they were plagued by pilot reports submitted to FAA and NASA-managed databases, raising concerns about production quality. He states that he is emphasizing. Max’s alarm system.
“Even in the first year of service resumption, a lot of confusion remains,” Jacobsen said.
The FAA said it strictly followed the report and acted as needed, but had nothing to do with MCAS, the flight control system at the heart of the crash.
“Like all other aircraft manufacturers and models, we have revealed that aircraft experience everyday in-flight problems,” the agency said. “It is important to distinguish between these issues and the issues that led to the aircraft touchdown.”
“Everything was under thorough investigation.”
With the help of Pearson, a former senior manager at Boeing’s 737 plant in Renton, Washington, the family sought a deeper review of Boeing’s production practices, a culture that could lead to mistakes if not addressed. Insisted that there is. Continue to raise issues.
Pearson said the pressure to reach production targets led to worsening factory conditions before retiring in August 2018. In early 2020, a parliamentary investigator introduced him to Stumo, and since then Pierson has worked with his family to draw public attention to these issues.
Most recently, he joined the family at a meeting with the National Transportation Safety Board, a respected body that oversees clash investigations. After a push by Mr. Pearson and his family, government officials confirmed in an email to Mr. Pearson last month that he had not investigated Boeing’s production practices after the crash. According to Pearson, the NTSB’s work is important and the decision may have influenced subsequent inquiries.
“Everything was under scrutiny,” he said.
In a statement, the NTSB said the review of available evidence did not give a reason to investigate Boeing’s production practices.
“Analysis of flight data and cockpit voice recorder information, maintenance records, interviews with stakeholders, and reviews of design certification data has led to many discoveries,” he said. A state that can be logically or physically traced back to the original manufacture of the airplane. “
Pearson and his family are divided. In both collisions, the sensor was intended to measure the angle of the wing with respect to the approaching wind, and it was discovered by accident investigators that flight control software pushed down the nose of the plane. However, Pearson said previous problems on both sides, including these sensors, could have been caused by a manufacturing error and the possibility needs further investigation.
Boeing said in a statement that the crash was the subject of many government investigations around the world, “neither of these reviews found that factory production conditions contributed to the accident.”
External safety experts also defended the NTSB, stating that the NTSB played its part and the conclusions are sound.
“There is no credible evidence that the NTSB should have begun searching the factory floor,” said Jeff Guzetti, a former accident investigator on the board and FAA. What was the possible cause, and they definitely found the possible cause. “
According to Boeing, since the global ban ended in late 2020, customers have ordered more than 1,000 Max aircraft and about 45 airlines have returned their planes to service. The company is also increasing production, approaching its goal of producing a maximum of 31 aircraft per month.
Meanwhile, the family continues to meet with lawmakers and regulators to encourage further scrutiny of the company and the plane.
“When this happens, when such a loss occurs, we deal with it, deal with logistics, sadness, and move on,” said De Luis, who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I am. Now, weekly, monthly, it was a new revelation, so we can’t move on. “
