737 Max

Paul Hudson has been skeptical of the FAA’s order lifting the grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max since that day last month when the agency cleared the aircraft to once again carry passengers in the US. Hudson, president of FlyersRights.org, is one of four plaintiffs named in an action before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals […]

Early yesterday morning, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson signed an official “Recission of Emergency Order of Prohibition.” In lay terms, that meant operators of the Boeing 737 Max may again begin flying the aircraft subject to the conditions laid out by the agency related to maintenance and pilot training. Max aircraft around the world have been […]

When Southwest Airlines reported its quarterly earnings last week, the company included a $428 million payment received from Boeing to cover a variety of ongoing issues surrounding the grounded 737 MAX aircraft. The MAX has been grounded since March 2019 following two accidents, one in 2018, the other in 2019. Southwest had already accepted delivery […]

The cover story in The New York Times magazine for September 22, 2019, was entitled, “What Really Brought Down the Boeing 737 Max?” The writer, William Langewiesche—son of the sainted author of Stick and Rudder, Wolfgang Langewiesche—is a veteran of Flying, an experienced pilot, and a thorough and technically savvy researcher of his wide-ranging articles […]

On March 8, 2017, the FAA granted Boeing an amended type certificate for the 737 Max 8, the 12th derivative of the 737 and the first successor aircraft to the 737 NG series. The first fatal crash of a Lion Air 737 Max 8 occurred just 17 months later near Jakarta, Indonesia. Another Max 8, […]

David Calhoun assumed the role of Boeing’s CEO only one week ago, but his plate of problems was already full because of the chaos surrounding the company’s beleaguered 737 Max. Recent news following the ousting of Calhoun’s predecessor Dennis Muilenburg has only continued to darken the credibility cloud hanging over the company. Some industry sources […]

The Monday, December 16, 2019, announcement at Boeing’s Chicago headquarters of the company’s plan to halt 737 Max production in January 2020 was not much of a surprise to anyone. Despite the troubled airplane’s grounding in March 2019, America’s top manufacturing exporter continued building 42 airframes each month, creating a backlog of more than 400 […]

For Boeing, 2019 has evolved into the worst year for the company’s reputation in its history, beginning of course with the grounding last March of the 737 Max over the airplane’s faulty MCAS (maneuvering characteristics augmentation system). Since then, the company has continued building new 737 Max aircraft at the rate of 42 per month […]

Aviators understand that aircraft accidents seldom occur because of a single misstep in the human or technological chain. They usually occur when a flight crew is overwhelmed by multiple human or technological failures within a short time span. The Komite Nasional Keselamatan Transportasi of Indonesia, also known as the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), issued […]

Handling emergencies and unusual situations is a significant part of learning to fly and remaining current to fly any airplane. Flight training can’t possibly teach pilots how to handle every single event they could encounter, however. With that concept in mind, pilots are often taught to look for the similarities between one event and another […]