FAA Gives Approval for Boeing 737 Max
The Federal Aviation Administration has cleared the Boeing’s 737 Max to fly passengers again. Today’s announcement comes after a nearly two-year ban, as a result of two crashes that killed 346 people. FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said a repeat of the conditions in both crashes is now “impossible” thanks to changes in design and training protocol. You can see the announcement here.
The end of the 20-month ban gives Boeing the chance to start delivering 450 Max jetliners it had produced since the ban was put in place in March of 2019. Boeing shares were up about 3% in morning trading. Boeing has another 3,000 737 Max orders waiting.
The 737 Max was grounded back in March 2019 after two 737 Max planes crashed within five months. On October 29, 2018, a Boeing 737-8 airplane operated by Lion Air (Lion Air Flight 610) was involved in an accident after takeoff from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, resulting in 189 fatalities. The second incident happened on March 10, 2019, when a Boeing 737-8 airplane operated by Ethiopian Airlines (Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302) was involved in an accident after takeoff from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, resulting in 157 fatalities.
Boeing and the FAA faced criticism from lawmakers and some air safety experts. Investigations into the crashes and the Max’s development focused on an automated flight control system that was meant to prevent the aircraft from stalling. Pilots on both flights that crashed struggled with the new system after it was activated because of faulty sensor data. A House investigation in September found regulatory, design and management problems as the jets were being developed led to the “preventable death”, CNBC reports.
Boeing has made that system less aggressive and added more redundancies to prevent these issues from ever happening again. American Airlines is set to be the first U.S. airline to return the aircraft to commercial service at the end of December. The carrier said it plans to expand Max flights throughout January from its Miami hub.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
bonus_miles_full
Learn more about this card and its features!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
