Tag: stall

French Judges Drop Charges Against Air France Over 2009 Crash, Blames Pilots

September 5, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

PARIS, Sept 5 (Reuters) – French judges have dropped charges against Air France and Airbus over a mid-Atlantic plane crash in 2009 that killed all 228 people on board, blaming the pilots for losing control of the plane.

In their conclusions, seen by Reuters, the judges said the pilots of the Airbus A330 had failed to process all the warnings and instrument readings provided by the aircraft.

The plane plunged into the ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris after entering an aerodynamic stall and falling from an altitude of 38,000 feet during a storm, its engines running but its wings losing lift.

“The direct cause of the accident is the crew’s loss of control of the aircraft’s trajectory,” the judges determined.

Other crews, faced with similar situations, had successfully maintained control of their aircraft, their ruling said.

The judges overruled the prosecutors investigating the case, who had recommended that Air France stand trial over the crash in July.

In their 2012 report, French civil accident investigators found the startled crew of AF447 mishandled the loss of airspeed readings from pitot sensors blocked with ice and pushed the jet into a stall by holding the nose too high. The report also cited poor training and the lack of a clear cockpit display for speed problems.

The three-year civil investigation was not designed to cast blame, which was the purpose of the separate judicial probe culminating in the decision on Thursday.

A lawyer representing the families of victims said an appeal against the judges’ decision would be lodged immediately.

“The judges have just written in black and white that the icing of the pitot sensors had nothing to do with the accident. It’s nonsense,” Sebastien Busy told Reuters. “If the pitot sensors hadn’t iced up, there wouldn’t have been an accident.”

The accident was the deadliest in the history of Air France and in the history of the A330.

A decade later, the aviation industry is still implementing lessons learned from the crash. Changes have focused on training, cockpit procedures and the tracking of aircraft in remote zones.

It took salvage teams nearly two years to locate the A330’s flight recorders on the ocean floor.

(Reporting by Sophie Louet and Emmanuel Jarry Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

FAA to Invite Global Boeing 737 MAX Pilots for Simulator Tests

August 23, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

CHICAGO/WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Thursday it would invite Boeing 737 MAX pilots from across the world to participate in simulator tests as part of the process to recertify the aircraft for flight following two fatal crashes.

Earlier, Reuters reported that the agency had asked the three U.S. airlines that operate the MAX to provide the names of some pilots who had only flown the 737 for around a year, including at least one MAX flight.

In a statement, the FAA said it had not specified the number of required hours of flight experience, but said the candidates would be a cross-section of line pilots and must have experience at the controls of the MAX.

Boeing Co’s latest 737 narrow-body model, the MAX, was grounded worldwide in March after two crashes within five months in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people.

Boeing has been reprogramming software for a stall-prevention system at the center of both crashes, which the FAA must approve before the plane flies again commercially.

The FAA said it had not yet specified a firm schedule for the tests.

Boeing has said it is working toward getting the 737 MAX flying again commercially in the early fourth quarter. Reuters reported on Thursday that it had told suppliers it planned to ramp 737 production back up in February, sending its shares 4% higher.

The world’s largest planemaker slowed its 737 production rate in April because deliveries of the MAX, which makes up the bulk of its single-aisle production, were frozen under the grounding, hitting its supply chain and airline customers.

In the United States, MAX operators Southwest Airlines Co , American Airlines and United Airlines have had to cancel hundreds of daily flights as they wrestle with slimmer fleets at a time of strong domestic air travel demand.

The MAX is Boeing’s fastest-selling aircraft, with about 5,000 pending orders.

As part of its own testing process, Boeing has invited senior airline pilots to experiment with the software fix and use simulators to run scenarios similar to the ones that led to the two crashes.

But sources told Reuters that the FAA also wanted to observe newer 737 pilots. One source said the simulator tests were supposed to be conducted during the first week of September but had been pushed back to the middle of the month.

The FAA, which is working alongside global regulators, has said repeatedly it does not have a fixed time line to approve the grounded jets to fly commercially again.

(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Peter Cooney)

Boeing 737 MAX Boosted by IAG Plan to Order 200 Jets

June 18, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

PARIS, June 18 (Reuters) – Boeing’s grounded 737 MAX jet received a boost on Tuesday after British Airways-owner IAG signed a letter of intent to order 200 of the planes and said it was confident that it would return to service in the coming months.

Boeing said the deal had a value of more than $24 billion at list prices.

IAG said the mix of 737-8 and 737-10 aircraft, to be delivered between 2023 and 2027, would be powered by CFM Leap engines and used across a number of its airlines including British Airways, Vueling and Level.

The MAX 737 was grounded in March following two deadly crashes, and Boeing has been working on a software fix to get the jet back flying by the end of the year.

IAG Chief Executive Willie Walsh said he had experienced Boeing’s MCAS anti-stall software in person, adding it was “very helpful to see it in operation” and to “understand the changes” that Boeing was proposing.

“It gave me confidence both in terms of the aircraft and the changes that Boeing introduced,” he said at the announcement of the deal at the Paris Airshow.

“I am confident in Boeing.”

Boeing shares rose 2% on the announcement. The company is working towards a certification flight with regulators soon.

Boeing commercial airplanes boss Kevin McAllister said the decision of when the MAX flies again was in the hands of the regulators.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Eric M. Johnson and Alistair Smout Editing by Jane Merriman and Mark Potter)

FAA Convenes Review Board for Boeing Software Fix

May 7, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration said on Tuesday it had convened a multi-agency Technical Advisory Board to review Boeing’s proposed software fix on the grounded 737 MAX.

The board consists of experts from the FAA, U.S. Air Force, NASA and Volpe National Transportation Systems Center that were not involved in any aspect of the Boeing 737 MAX certification. The board’s recommendations will “directly inform the FAA’s decision concerning the 737 MAX fleet’s safe return to service.”

The plane was grounded worldwide in mid-March after two Boeing 737 MAX crashes in October and March killed 346 people.

Boeing, which has yet to formally submit the software fix to the FAA for approval, did not immediately comment Tuesday on the new review.

Some in Congress have urged the FAA to conduct an independent review into the anti-stall system at the center of investigations into two deadly plane crashes before allowing the planes to resume flying.

The board known as TAB will assess Boeing’s proposed fix to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), the FAA said.

“The TAB is charged with evaluating Boeing and FAA efforts related to Boeing’s software update and its integration into the 737 MAX flight control system. The TAB will identify issues where further investigation is required prior to FAA approval of the design change,” the FAA said.

The world’s largest planemaker, facing its worst crisis in years and the worldwide grounding of its top-selling jetliner, has said its software upgrade and associated pilot training will add layers of protection to prevent erroneous data from triggering MCAS.

The system activated in the Ethiopian Airlines crash in March and also during a separate Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October.

There are a number of other reviews ongoing, including a blue-ribbon committee appointed by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao looking at the FAA’s aircraft certification process.

Federal prosecutors, the Transportation Department’s inspector general and lawmakers are investigating the FAA’s certification of the 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

A separate joint review by 10 governmental air regulators started last week and is expected to last about 90 days, but the FAA has said that a decision on ungrounding the plane is not contingent on that review being completed.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Boeing Invites Pilots & Regulators to 737 MAX Briefing

March 25, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

SINGAPORE/ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Boeing Co said it invited more than 200 airline pilots, technical leaders and regulators for an information session on Wednesday as it looks to return the 737 MAX to commercial service.

The meeting is a sign that Boeing’s planned software patch is nearing completion, though it will still need regulatory approval.

Over the weekend, Ethiopian Airlines executives had questioned whether Boeing had told pilots enough about “aggressive” software that pushes the plane’s nose down, a focus of investigation into a deadly crash in Ethiopia this month that led to the global grounding of 737 MAX jets.

The informational session in Renton, Washington on Wednesday is part of a plan to reach all current and many future 737 MAX operators and their home regulators to discuss software and training updates to the jet, Boeing said in a statement.

Garuda Indonesia, which on Friday said it planned to cancel its order for 49 737 MAX jets citing a loss of passenger trust after the crashes, was invited to the briefing, CEO Ari Askhara told Reuters on Monday.

“We were informed on Friday, but because it is short notice we can’t send a pilot there,” he said, adding the airline had requested a webinar with Boeing but that idea had been rejected.

A Boeing spokeswoman said the Wednesday event was one of a series of in-person information sessions.

“We have been scheduling and will continue to arrange additional meetings to communicate with all current and many future MAX customers and operators,” she said.

Garuda has only one 737 MAX and had been reconsidering its order before the Ethiopian crash, as has fellow Indonesian carrier Lion Air, which experienced a deadly crash in October.

Singapore Airlines Ltd said on Monday its offshoot SilkAir, which operates the 737 MAX, had received the invitation to the Wednesday event and would send representatives.

Korean Air Lines Co Ltd, which before the grounding had been due to receive its first 737 MAX in April, said it planned to send pilots to Renton.

The 737 MAX is Boeing’s best-selling plane, with orders worth more than $500 billion at list prices.

Teams from the three U.S. airlines that own 737 MAX jets participated in a session in Renton reviewing a planned software upgrade on Saturday.

A U.S. official briefed on the matter Saturday said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not yet signed off on the software upgrade and training but the goal is to review them in coming weeks and approve them by April.

It remained unclear whether the software upgrade, called “design changes” by the FAA, will resolve concerns stemming from the ongoing investigation into the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash, which killed all 157 on board.

“After the crash it came to our attention that the system is aggressive,” Yohannes Hailemariam, vice president for flight operations at Ethiopian, told local reporters speaking in the Amharic language.

“It gives a message of stalling and it takes immediate action which is faster than the action which pilots were briefed to take by Boeing,” said Yohannes, himself a pilot with over 30 years of experience, including flying Boeing’s 777 and 787.

The U.S. official said planned changes included 15 minutes of training to help pilots deactivate the anti-stall system known as MCAS in the event of faulty sensor data or other issues. It also included some self-guided instruction, the official added.

American Airlines said Sunday it will extend flight cancellations through April 24 because of the grounding of the 737 MAX and cut some additional flights.

(Reporting by Jamie Freed in Singapore and Jason Neely in Addis Ababa; additional reporting by Cindy Silviana in Jakarta, Heekyong Yang in Seoul, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese and Michael Perry)

Garuda Indonesia Plans to Cancel Boeing 737 MAX 8 Order

March 22, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

JAKARTA/OSLO (Reuters) – Indonesian airline Garuda plans to cancel a $6 billion order for Boeing 737 MAX jets, it said on Friday, saying some passengers would be frightened to board the plane after two fatal crashes, although analysts said the deal had long been in doubt.

The news came as another 737 MAX customer, Norwegian Air, played down the significance of a move by Boeing to make a previously optional cockpit warning light compulsory.

Norwegian said that, according to Boeing, the warning light would not have been able to prevent erroneous signals that Lion Air pilots received before their new 737 MAX plane crashed off Indonesia in October, killing 189 people.

Indonesia’s national carrier Garuda is the first airline to publicly announce plans to scrap an order since the world’s entire fleet of 737 MAX planes was grounded last week, following an Ethiopian Airlines crash that left 157 people dead.

“Many passengers told us they were afraid to get on a MAX 8,” Garuda CEO Ari Askhara told Reuters on Friday.

However, the airline had been reconsidering its order for 49 of the narrowbody jets prior to the Ethiopian crash, including potentially swapping some for widebody Boeing models.

Southeast Asia faces a glut of narrowbody aircraft like the 737 MAX and rival Airbus A320neo at a time of slowing global economic growth and high fuel costs.

“They have been re-looking at their fleet plan anyway so this is an opportunity to make some changes that otherwise may be difficult to do,” CAPA Centre for Aviation Chief Analyst Brendan Sobie said.

Indonesia’s Lion Air has also said it might cancel 737 MAX aircraft, though industry sources say it is also struggling to absorb the number of planes on order.

Both crashes are still being investigated. But regulators have noted some similarities between the two, and attention has focused on whether pilots had the correct information about the “angle of attack” at which the wing slices through the air.

No direct link has been proven between the accidents.

RETROFITS

Boeing now plans to make compulsory a light to alert pilots when sensor readings of the angle of attack do not match – meaning at least one must be wrong -, according to two officials briefed on the matter.

Investigators suspect a faulty angle-of-attack reading led the doomed Lion Air jet’s computer to believe it had stalled, prompting the plane’s anti-stall system, called MCAS, repeatedly to push the plane’s nose down.

The Lion Air plane did not have the warning light installed because it was not compulsory. Ethiopian Airlines did not immediately comment on whether its crashed plane had the alert.

But the Ethiopian carrier, whose reputation along with Boeing’s is at stake, issued a statement on Friday emphasising the modernity of its safety and training systems, with more than $500 million invested in infrastructure in the past five years.

The Ethiopian crash has set off one of the widest inquiries in aviation history and cast a shadow over the Boeing 737 MAX model intended to be a standard for decades.

Boeing did not comment on the plan to make the safety feature standard, but separately said it was moving quickly to make software changes and expected the upgrade to be approved by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in coming weeks.

Chicago-based Boeing will also retrofit older planes with the cockpit warning light, the officials told Reuters.

Experts said it could take weeks or months to be done, and for regulators to review and approve the changes. Regulators in Europe and Canada have said they will conduct their own reviews of any new systems.

Norwegian said its 18 737 MAX jets did not have the cockpit warning light, but it would follow any recommendations made by Boeing and aviation regulations. The airline said last week it would seek compensation from Boeing for the cost of grounding its 737 MAX planes, which makes up 11 percent of its fleet.

Since the Ethiopian crash, Boeing shares have fallen 12 percent and $28 billion has been wiped off its market value.

Pressure has mounted on the company from U.S. legislators, who are also expected to question the FAA. The company faces a criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department as well.

Several lawsuits have already been filed on behalf of victims of the Lion Air crash referring to the Ethiopian accident. Boeing declined to comment on the lawsuits.

( By Cindy Silviana and Terje Solsvik, Additional reporting by Jamie Freed in Singapore, Bernadette Christina Munthe in Jakarta, Maggie Fick and Jason Neely in Addis Ababa, Tim Hepher in Paris, and Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Writing by Sayantani Ghosh, Georgina Prodhan and Ben Klayman; Editing by Mark Potter)

Lion Air Ponders Canceling Boeing Jets After Crash

December 3, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

PARIS/JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s Lion Air is reviewing airplane purchases from Boeing Co and has not ruled out canceling orders as relations worsen in a spat over responsibility for a 737 jetliner crash that killed 189 people in late October.

Co-founder Rusdi Kirana is furious over what he regards as attempts by Boeing to deflect attention from recent design changes and blame Lion Air for the crash, while the airline faces scrutiny over its maintenance record and pilots’ actions.

Kirana is examining the possibility of canceling remaining orders of Boeing jets “from the next delivery,” according to a person familiar with his thinking. Another source close to the airline said it was looking at canceling orders.

No final decision has been made, but discussion over the fate of $22 billion of remaining orders highlights the stakes surrounding an investigation involving Boeing’s fastest-ever selling jet, the 737 MAX, which entered service last year.

Lion Air has 190 Boeing jets worth $22 billion at list prices waiting to be delivered, on top of 197 already taken, making it one of the largest U.S. export customers.

Any request to cancel could be designed to put pressure on Boeing and would likely trigger extensive negotiations. Many airlines defer orders, but industry sources say aerospace suppliers rarely allow much scope for unilateral cancellations.

Lion Air declined to comment. A Boeing spokesman said: “We are taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, and are working closely with the investigating team and all regulatory authorities involved. We are also supporting our valued customer through this very tough time.”

MAINTENANCE, SOFTWARE

Kirana, who is now Indonesia’s envoy to Malaysia but still carries weight at the airline he co-founded with his brother in 2000, ordered the review in response to a Boeing statement focusing attention on piloting and maintenance, the person said.

Boeing released the statement after investigators last week issued an interim report focusing on maintenance actions spread over four flights in the run-up to the doomed flight on Oct. 29.

Boeing is also examining software changes in the wake of the crash, while insisting longstanding procedures exist for pilots to cancel automated nose-down movements experienced by the 737 MAX in response to erroneous sensor readings.

It has come under fire from U.S. pilots for not mentioning the MCAS system – a modification of existing anti-stall systems – in the manual for the 737 MAX, which began service last year.

“Why are they changing (software) if there was nothing wrong?” the person familiar with Kirana’s thinking said.

Boeing has said all information needed to fly the 737 safely is available to pilots and that its workhorse model is safe.

Some financial sources say Lion Air and southeast Asian rivals over-expanded and would be comfortable with fewer orders.

But the row highlights an unusually polarized dispute over the causes of the crash. Experts say most accidents are caused by a cocktail of factors and parties rarely comment in detail before the final report, which often follows a year of analysis.

In its statement, Boeing recapped the interim report and listed questions on maintenance and pilot behavior that it said remained unanswered in the 78-page document, but did not mention the MCAS modification covered in an earlier safety bulletin.

It is not the first time an airline has crossed swords with its supplier after a crash. Lion Air’s rival AirAsia clashed with Airbus after its Indonesian subsidiary lost an A320 in 2014. It continued to take deliveries, but relations never fully recovered and it later toyed with buying 787s from Boeing.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher in PARIS, Cindy Silviana in JAKARTA; Additional reporting by Eric JOhnson; Editing by Mark Potter)

Image from www.boeing.com

Doomed Lion Air Jet Was ‘Not Airworthy’

November 28, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

JAKARTA (Reuters) – A Lion Air jet that crashed into the sea off Indonesia last month was not in an airworthy condition on its second-to-last flight, when pilots experienced similar problems to those on its doomed last journey, investigators said on Wednesday.

Contact with the Boeing 737 MAX jet was lost 13 minutes after it took off on Oct. 29 from the capital, Jakarta, heading north to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang.

In a preliminary report, Indonesia’s transport safety committee (KNKT) focused on the airline’s maintenance practices and pilot training and a Boeing anti-stall system but did not give a cause for the crash that killed all 189 people on board.

The report unveiled fresh details of efforts by pilots to steady the jet as they reported a “flight control problem”, including the captain’s last words to air traffic control asking to be cleared to “five thou” or 5,000 feet.

Information retrieved from the flight data recorder showed the “stick shaker” was vibrating the captain’s controls, warning of a stall throughout most of the flight. The captain was using his controls to bring the plane’s nose up, but an automated anti-stall system was pushing it down.

Pilots flying the same plane a day earlier had experienced a similar problem, en route from Denpasar, Bali to Jakarta, until they used switches to shut off the system and used manual controls to fly and stabilise the plane, KNKT said.

“The flight from Denpasar to Jakarta experienced stick shaker activation during the takeoff rotation and remained active throughout the flight,” the committee said.

“This condition is considered as un-airworthy condition” and the flight should have been “discontinued”.

The pilots of that flight reported problems to Lion Air’s maintenance team, which checked the jet and cleared it for take-off the next morning.

Former Boeing flight control engineer Peter Lemme said stick shaker activation was “very distracting and unnerving”.

“It’s not something you ever want to have happen as a pilot,” he said.

KNKT investigator Nurcahyo Utomo said the agency had not determined if the anti-stall system, which was not explained to pilots in manuals, was a contributing factor.

“We still don’t know yet, if it contributed or not,” he said in response to a question. “It is too early to conclude.”

In a statement, Boeing drew attention in detail to a list of airline maintenance actions set out in the report but stopped short of blaming ground workers or pilots for the accident.

REVISED ANTI-STALL SYSTEM

The manufacturer, which has said procedures for preventing an anti-stall system activating by accident were already in place, said pilots of the penultimate flight had used that drill but noted the report did not say if pilots of the doomed flight did so.

Boeing’s statement did not make any reference to a revised anti-stall system introduced on the 737 MAX which U.S. pilots and Indonesian investigators say was missing from the operating manual.

Boeing says the procedure for dealing with a so-called runaway stabiliser, under which anti-stall systems push the nose down even when the plane is not entering a stall or losing lift, had not changed between an earlier version of the 737 and the newly delivered 737 MAX.

Pilots however say the control column behaves differently in certain conditions, which could confuse pilots who have flown the earlier model.

Indonesian regulators were urged after previous accidents to improve their oversight of maintenance and pilot training.

In an interview, Indonesia’s director general of aviation, Polana Pramesti, said the agency planned to require pilots in Indonesia to be trained on simulators for the MAX series.

Pramesti also said a new regulation was being planned to limit the risk of pilot fatigue occurring and should be issued in the “near future”.

A source at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said a number of factors were ultimately likely to be cited as causes of the crash, including pilot training and maintenance. It had still to be determined how much, if at all, the plane design would be faulted, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Edward Sirait, chief executive of Lion Air, said he had not read the KNKT report but would comply with investigators’ recommendations.

The report provided new recommendations to Lion Air on safety on top of earlier recommendations about the flight manual that have already been implemented by Boeing.

Authorities have downloaded data from the flight data recorder, but are still looking for the cockpit voice recorder (CVR).

Indonesia plans to bring in a ship from Singapore able to stay in position without dropping anchor, to help with the search.

Asked what was needed from the CVR, Utomo said: “A lot. Discussions between the left and right pilots were about what? What procedures did they carry out. Were there any strange noises?”

Without it, he said there would be “a lot of guessing”.

(Reporting by Cindy Silviana and Fergus Jensen; additional reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris, David Shepardson in Washington, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago, Eric M Johnson in Seattle and Gayatri Suroyo in Jakarta; Writing by Ed Davies and Jamie Freed; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Nick Macfie)

Unraveling The Boeing 737 MAX Lion Air Crash

November 15, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

(Reuters) – The crash of a Boeing Co 737 MAX jet in Indonesia on Oct. 29 has raised questions on whether the manufacturer shared enough information with regulators, airlines and pilots about the systems on the latest version of its popular narrow-body plane.

The jet operated by budget carrier Lion Air crashed into the Java Sea shortly after take-off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.

WHAT IS NEW ON THE 737 MAX?

The most hyped features of the 737 MAX compared with its predecessor, the 737NG, are more fuel-efficient engines.

But as a result of the larger engines, which are placed higher and further forward of the wing, the jet’s balance changed. To address that, Boeing put in place more anti-stall protections, Leeham Co analyst Bjorn Fehrm said in an online post.

An automated protection system called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) kicks in when the angle of attack is too high, when the plane’s nose is too elevated, threatening a stall.

WHAT IS ‘ANGLE OF ATTACK’?

On paper, it measures the angle between the air flow and the wing. But it is so fundamental to flight that historians say the only instrument on the Wright Brothers’ first aircraft was a piece of yarn designed to measure it.

If the angle of attack is too high, the airflow over the wing is disturbed, throwing the plane into an aerodynamic stall.

One of two angle of attack sensors on the Lion Air jet was faulty, according to Indonesian investigators.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last week warned airlines that erroneous inputs from those sensors could lead the jet automatically to pitch its nose down even when autopilot is turned off, making it difficult for pilots to control.

WHICH AIRLINES OPERATE THE 737 MAX?

Boeing has delivered 241 of the jets to customers since it entered service last year, according to its website.

Major operators include Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, Norwegian, Lion Air, Air Canada, China Southern, China Eastern and flydubai.

Another 4,542 have been ordered but not yet delivered.

WHAT DID AIRLINES AND PILOTS KNOW ABOUT THE SYSTEM?

Lion Air’s flight manual did not contain information about the new anti-stall system, according to investigators and an airplane flight manual seen by Reuters. U.S. pilots were also not made aware in training courses, pilot unions say.

American Airlines said it was “unaware” of some of the functionality of the MCAS system. [L4N1XQ23Q]

Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg told Fox Business Network on Tuesday that Boeing provides “all of the information that’s needed to safely fly our airplanes”.

HOW WOULD A PILOT SHUT OFF THE SYSTEM?

Pilots can stop the automated response by pressing two buttons if the system behaves unexpectedly, the FAA says.

That action is set out in a checklist used by Lion Air pilots for in-air troubleshooting, an instructor said. It is also required to be committed to memory by pilots.

Pilots on a flight from Jakarta to Bali the day before the crash experienced a similar sensor issue but managed to land safely by turning off the system, the New York Times reported.

HOW WAS THE SYSTEM APPROVED?

The FAA holds the main responsibility for certifying Boeing jets and training programs for pilots, but local regulators also issue approvals for airlines based in their countries.

An unresolved question is how Boeing measured the system’s reliability and on what basis the FAA certified it as safe.

HOW ARE PILOTS TRAINED?

An FAA document on training requirements for 737 MAX pilots transitioning from the older 737NG has no reference to the new anti-stall system.

Lion Air says it followed a training regime approved by U.S. and European regulators. The training was restricted to three hours of computer-based training and a familiarization flight.

However, Brazil’s regulator told Reuters that it had required specific training for pilots on the anti-stall system.

WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE THE CRASH?

Boeing last week issued a bulletin to airlines reiterating existing procedures and advising them to add information on the anti-stall system to flight manuals, which was quickly followed by an FAA directive making that mandatory.

The FAA and Boeing are studying the need for software changes, as well as revisions to training and operating procedures on the 737 MAX, the regulator said.

WHEN WILL THE FIRST REPORT ON THE CRASH BE RELEASED?

A preliminary report will be released on Nov. 28 or 29, according to Indonesian investigators. However, divers have yet to locate the airline’s cockpit voice recorder, which would shed light on pilot interactions that are important for gaining a fuller picture of the circumstances of the crash.

(Reporting by Jamie Freed in Singapore, Tim Hepher in Paris, David Shepardson in Washington, Eric M. Johnson in Seattle, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and Marcelo Rochabrun in Sao Paolo; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Image from www.boeing.com

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