More Boeing Bad News

[TheGreenGoblin]

SNAP

Synchronicity bm, or just the quantum entanglement of a deranged pair?

[Boac]

entanglement of a deranged pair

There are specialist suppliers of 'equipment' to cater for your 'difficulties', guys. Not visible to others when worn.

We need to know a little more before 'encouraging pilots to use a particular control' is considered a heinous crime or not. If the use of this 'control' is in the 'new' QRH, then what is the issue?

[Pontius Navigator]

The test was designed to see how quickly pilots could react to the faulty software.

In other words, we know it's faulty but you should be able to manage

[Undried Plum]

The test was designed to see how quickly pilots could react to the faulty software.

In other words, we know it's faulty but you should be able to manage

Unpublished last words on the CVR:
Now what's it doing?

[PHXPhlyer]

Now what's it doing? and Why did it do that?
Questions often heard from pilots new to Airbus aircraft.

PP

[Undried Plum]

And now new to line pilots of Boeing aircraft.

May their gods bless them all, for surely Boeing and the FAA most surely didn't do untu them what they did unto them.

[TheGreenGoblin]

entanglement of a deranged pair

There are specialist suppliers of 'equipment' to cater for your 'difficulties', guys. Not visible to others when worn.

I suspect that the unfortunate pilots of the New Improved Max will need the same 'equipment' when the aircraft starts straying into "what the hell is it doing?" mode again!

[Undried Plum]

Nowadays, the last words on the Boeing-provided CVR will be displaced by the ASCII letters of: wtf?

[Pontius Navigator]

UP, on software bugs and reaction, many years ago, on a particular piece of mission software, a crew reported an odd event. After much analysis it was determined that pressing a button and then operating a switch within 0.1064 seconds would produce the third unexpected result.
It was considered that the computer may have been running slow and that it was unlikely to recur in normal operations as we would not be able to press the button and then operate the switch to get the anomalous result.
Challenge. We soon found we could all achieve super human operations.

[barkingmad]

Now what's it doing? and Why did it do that?
Questions often heard from pilots new to Airbus aircraft.

PP

And also on the CVR, the sound of old pilots who are used to the aircraft: “Aah, it’s doing THAT again!”

[TheGreenGoblin]

A run of the mill engine shutdown handled as per operating procedures, and nothing to see here folks, but it is a Max, so Boeing must be clenching their teeth...

An Air Canada Boeing Co 737-8 Max en route between Arizona and Montreal with three crew members onboard suffered an engine issue that forced the crew to divert the aircraft to Tucson, Arizona, the airline says.

Shortly after the take-off, the pilots received an “engine indication” and “decided to shut down one engine”, an Air Canada spokesman said on Friday.

737 Max: Boeing 'inappropriately coached' test pilots, say senators

“The aircraft then diverted to Tucson, where it landed normally and remains.”

The incident took place on 22 December.

The crew received a left engine hydraulic low pressure indication and declared a Pan-Pan emergency before diverting the flight, Belgian aviation news website Aviation24.be reported.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ical-issue

[Boac]

It's disgraceful how Boeing still have not prevented engine failure on the MAX...........

[TheGreenGoblin]

It's disgraceful how Boeing still have not prevented engine failure on the MAX...........

Indeed!

[PHXPhlyer]

"The crew received a left engine hydraulic low pressure indication "

Not exactly engine, more like engine accessory.
Most likely hydraulic pump or even a bad hose or fitting.
More like Safran's problem or even the guys at Marana who were storing it.

PP

[G-CPTN]

More like Safran's problem or even the guys at Marana who were storing it.

So, how long after the stored aircraft return to service will it be 'safe' to consider flying?

[Boac]

Rumours of a fuel leak.

[PHXPhlyer]

I think once they get a few cycles behind them and some "Home Cooking" maintenance vs. the storage and return to service protocols they should be good to go.

PP

[barkingmad]

Priorities dear boy, priorities.

Meanwhile, far from the flight line and bits of expensive aloominum, the usual management crap continues as a welcome distraction from the main problem;

Perhaps attempting to distract from the revelation that management knew about the shortcomings in the 737 MAX’s onboard computer that killed hundreds of passengers in two crashes within six months, Boeing was quick to embark on an internal witch hunt as Black Lives Matter took over the sociopolitical discourse this summer, wielding the big stick of cancel culture against its own employees. Communications chief Niel Golightly resigned after just six months with the company over a 33 year-old article he’d written arguing against women serving in the military. While he claimed the piece no longer reflected his views, it was nevertheless “embarrassingly wrong and offensive”, Golightly said – to applause from the CEO, who boasted about the company’s “unrelenting commitment to diversity and inclusion in all its dimensions”.

Boeing’s planes may still be horrifically unsafe, but at least doomed passengers can die content that the airplane manufacturer has “zero tolerance for bigotry of any kind”.

One could not make this stuff up as a script for a satirical comedy show...

[PHXPhlyer]

Senate Commerce Committee report on 737Max

Report releases days before the return to commercial service.
Too long to cut and paste ; hope the link works.
Executive summary below link.

https://www.commerce.senate.gov/service ... 34D9D3CEF6

I. Executive Summary
In April of 2019, weeks after the second of two tragic crashes of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, U.S.
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation staff began receiving information from
whistleblowers detailing numerous concerns related to aviation safety. Commerce Committee Chairman
Roger Wicker directed staff to begin an oversight investigation. The scope and breadth of the
investigation quickly expanded beyond the first allegations inspired by the 737 MAX tragedies.
Information received from fifty-seven whistleblowers revealed common themes among the allegations
including insufficient training, improper certification, FAA management acting favorably toward
operators, and management undermining of frontline inspectors. The investigation revealed that these
trends were often accompanied by retaliation against those who report safety violations and a lack of
effective oversight, resulting in a failed FAA safety management culture.
In support of the committee’s investigation, Chairman Wicker sent seven letters, which included
thirty specific requests for information to the FAA. To date more than half of the requested information
remains unanswered or incomplete. Committee staff have reviewed approximately 13,000 pages of
documents over the course of the investigation. Some of the correspondence in response to the
Chairman’s letters appeared to be contradictory and misleading. As a result of the slow response to
document requests, Chairman Wicker requested twenty-one FAA employees be made available for
interview by committee staff. Over the twenty month investigation, committee staff were permitted to
interview less than half of the employees requested. The documents received and the FAA employee
interviews conducted produced inconsistencies, contradictions, and in one case possible lack of candor.
This report details a number of significant lapses in aviation safety oversight and failed leadership
in the FAA. The committee is in receipt of many more examples and continues to receive new
information from new whistleblowers regularly. Some of the most significant findings include:
 FAA senior managers have not been held accountable for failure to develop and deliver adequate
training in Flight Standards despite repeated findings of deficiencies over several decades.
 The FAA continues to retaliate against whistleblowers instead of welcoming their disclosures in the
interest of safety.
 The Department of Transportation Office of General Counsel (DOT OGC) failed to produce relevant
documents requested by Chairman Wicker as required by the U.S. Constitution Article 1, Section 1.
 The FAA repeatedly permitted Southwest Airlines to continue operating dozens of aircraft in an
unknown airworthiness condition for several years. These flights put millions of passengers at
potential risk.
 During 737 MAX recertification testing, Boeing inappropriately influenced FAA human factor
simulator testing of pilot reaction times involving a Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation
System (MCAS) failure.
 FAA senior leaders may have obstructed a Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General
(DOT OIG) review of the 737 MAX crashes.

PP

[PHXPhlyer]

Passengers set to board first Boeing 737 Max flight, almost 2 years after jet's worldwide grounding

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/busine ... s-n1252452

Passengers set to board first Boeing 737 Max flight, almost 2 years after jet's worldwide grounding
The controversial jet was grounded in 2019 after two crashes that killed everybody on board.

Dec. 29, 2020, 6:44 AM MST
By Leticia Miranda and Sam Brock
The first commercial flight on Boeing's troubled 737 Max jet is set to leave Miami for New York's LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday morning, almost two years after the aircraft was grounded worldwide.

The Max was banned in March 2019 after a Lion Air crash in October 2018 in Indonesia killed 189 people and was followed five months later by an Ethiopian Airlines crash that caused the death of all 157 people aboard.

American Airlines plans to fly the Max from Miami to New York and back through Jan. 4 before adding more routes.


Boeing 737 Max will return to skies with paying US passengers Tuesday
DEC. 29, 202002:31
"We will never forget the lives lost in the two tragic accidents that led to the decision to suspend operations," Boeing CEO David Calhoun said in a statement in November. "These events and the lessons we have learned as a result have reshaped our company and further focused our attention on our core values of safety, quality and integrity."

In September, an investigative report from the House of Representatives placed the blame for the accidents squarely on Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration for their “repeated and serious failures."

The crashes “were the horrific culmination of a series of faulty technical assumptions by Boeing’s engineers, a lack of transparency on the part of Boeing’s management, and grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA,” the congressional report said.

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson, who flew the plane in September, told CNBC last month he is “100 percent confident” in the recertified 737 Max.

That confidence is not shared by all passengers, however. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that 57 percent of Americans said they were not likely to fly in a Boeing 737 Max when told of the plane's history.

Passengers on all of American's Max flights will be given advance warning, with the option to rebook, the airline said.

"Our promise to any customer that flies on us is that if you get on the 737 Max and you don't want to fly, we're going to allow you to change," David Seymour, chief operating officer of American Airlines, said.

Boeing still faces dozens of wrongful death lawsuits by victims families over the safety issues that led to the crashes. The families of Ethiopian crash victims urged regulators to ground the planes after new revelations included in a Senate Commerce Committee report released Friday found a series of failures in Boeing's recertification efforts.

"It is infuriating that American Airlines is in effect rewarding Boeing for the corrupt and catastrophic process that led to the Max," said Yalena Lopez-Lewis, whose husband, Antoine Lewis, died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

United Airlines plans to reintroduce the Max starting Feb. 11, and Southwest, the largest operator of 737 Max jets, is scheduled to start using the jet again "no sooner than the second quarter of 2021," according to a notice on its website.

American Airlines has ordered 76 Max jets to add to its current fleet of 24 737 Max aircraft.

PP