The United States approves the return of the 737 MAX as Boeing faces strong headwinds

WASHINGTON / SEATTLE: After nearly two years of scrutiny, corporate upheaval and a standoff with global regulators, Boeing Co is set on Wednesday to get approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to fly its aircraft again. jet 737 MAX after two fatal disasters.

The FAA will detail the software updates and training changes that Boeing must make to resume commercial flights after 20 months of landing, the longest in commercial aviation history.

The 737 MAX accidents in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people within five months in 2018 and 2019 and triggered a storm of investigations, expelled executives, frayed US leadership in global aviation, and cost Boeing an estimated $ 20 billion.

The US planemaker’s best-selling jet will resume commercial service facing strong headwinds such as a recovering coronavirus pandemic, new European tariffs and distrust of one of the most controlled brands in the aviation industry.

“Our family was destroyed,” Naoise Ryan, whose 39-year-old husband died aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, told a news conference Tuesday. “We are suffering and will most likely continue to suffer for a long time, if not for the rest of our lives.”

The 737 MAX is an upgrade to a jet engine first introduced in the 1960s. Single-aisle jets, such as the MAX and Airbus’ rival A320, are short-haul workhorses that dominate global fleets and provide a major source of profit in the industry.

Anticipating FAA approval, American Airlines plans to re-launch MAX commercial flights on December 29. Southwest Airlines, the largest MAX operator in the world, does not plan to fly the plane until the second quarter of 2021.

When it flies, Boeing will operate a 24-hour war room to monitor all MAX flights for issues that could affect the jet’s return, from blocked landing gear to medical emergencies, three people familiar with the matter said.

LONG TRACK FORWARD

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson is expected to sign an order lifting the flight ban on Wednesday, and the agency is ready to issue an airworthiness directive detailing the required changes.

The FAA requires new pilot training and software updates to deal with a stall prevention system called MCAS, which in both crashes repeatedly and forcefully pushed the nose of the jet as pilots struggled to regain control.

Major foreign regulators in Europe, Brazil, and China are also required to issue their own approvals after independent reviews, illustrating how the 737 MAX crashes overturned a once US-dominated airline safety system in which nations large and small for decades they have moved in step with the FAA.

The FAA, which has in the past faced allegations of being too close to Boeing, said it would no longer allow Boeing to sign the airworthiness of some 450 737 MAXs already built. Then schedule individual in-person inspections that could take a year or more to complete, extending jet delivery.

Boeing, meanwhile, is rushing to maintain maintenance and find airline buyers for many of its decommissioned 737 MAXs as the coronavirus crisis has sapped airlines’ desire to upgrade fleets.

For a picture of 737 MAX orders and deliveries to airline customers, click here: https://graphics.reuters.com/BOEING-ORDERS/MAX/xlbpgzjbovq

Even with all the hurdles, the resumption of deliveries of the 737 MAX will open a crucial pipeline of money for Boeing and hundreds of component suppliers whose finances have been strained by production cuts related to the jet safety ban.

Numerous reports have criticized Boeing and the FAA about the development of the aircraft. A US House of Representatives report in September stated that “Boeing has failed in the design and development of the MAX, and the FAA has failed in its oversight of Boeing and its certification of the aircraft.”

The report claims that Boeing made “incorrect design and performance assumptions,” while also criticizing Boeing for hiding “crucial information from the FAA, its customers, and 737 MAX pilots,” including “concealing existence itself. of MCAS to the pilots of the 737 MAX “.

The House on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill to reform how the FAA certifies airplanes, while a Senate committee on Wednesday will consider a similar bill.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago, David Shepardson in Washington, Allison Lampert in Montreal and Jamie Freed in Sydney; Editing by Matthew Lewis)