Boeing concedes both 737 Max accidents involved MCAS

KUALA LUMPUR: Boeing concedes that both 737 MAX accidents that killed a total of 346 people within a span of five months, had an issue with the Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System known as MCAS, which activated in response to the erroneous angle of attack information.

“The full details of what happened in the two accidents will be issued by the government authorities in the final reports, but, with the release of the preliminary report of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 accident investigation, it’s apparent that in both flights the MCAS, activated in response to erroneous angle of attack information,” Boeing’s chief executive officer, Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement.

The history of the industry showed that most accidents were caused by a chain of events.

“This again is the case here, and we know we can break one of those chain links in these two accidents.

“As pilots have told us, erroneous activation of the MCAS function can add to what is already a high workload environment. It’s our responsibility to eliminate this risk. We own it and we know how to do it.”

On March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed a few minutes after take- off from Addis Ababa, killing 157 people on board. Several months earlier in October 2018, Indonesia’s Lion Air Flight JT 610 crashed into the sea minutes after take- off, killing all the 189 people on board.

A preliminary report released yesterday ruled out pilot’s error in the Ethiopian Airlines’ crash.

Reports stated that pilots repeatedly followed procedures recommended by Boeing, but to no avail.

Muilenburg said from the days immediately following the Lion Air accident, Boeing had teams of its top engineers and technical experts working tirelessly in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration, and its customers to finalise and implement a software update that would ensure accidents like that of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 never happen again.

“We’re taking a comprehensive, disciplined approach, and taking the time, to get the software update right. We’re nearing completion and anticipate its certification and implementation on the 737 MAX fleet worldwide in the weeks ahead.

“We regret the impact the grounding has had on our airline customers and their passengers,” he said. – Bernama