Senator tells Boeing chief 737 Max were ‘flying coffins’
Boeing boss Dennis Muilenburg has been accused of turning 737 Max jets into ‘‘flying coffins’’ after the US aerospace giant removed details from pilot training manuals about a new system linked to two fatal crashes.
US senators heavily criticised the embattled Boeing chief executive during a Capitol Hill hearing on aviation safety and the future of the company’s 737 Max airliner, two of which crashed in the space of just five months.
They also heard evidence of emails between two of Boeing’s top pilots acknowledging the existence of a serious problem with the aircraft, more than a year before the first crash.
The hearing coincided with the first anniversary of the loss of a Lion Air 737 Max off Indonesia. Five months later a 737 Max operated by Ethiopian Airlines went down soon after take-off from Addis Ababa, leading to the aircraft type being grounded.
The crashes – which claimed 346 lives – both happened in similar circumstances, with a series of rapid dives and climbs before the aircraft crashed.
A flight control system known as MCAS is being blamed for the crashes. MCAS pushes the aircraft’s nose down if it thinks the aircraft is flying too steeply and will stall. It was installed to ensure the 737 Max had the same handling characteristics as older models, cutting retraining costs, but pilots were not initially told about it.
Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal led some of the most damning questioning of Muilenburg.
‘‘Pilots and passengers on those planes never had a chance – they were flying coffins because Boeing decided to conceal MCAS,’’ he said.
Senators heard evidence Boeing removed all but one reference to MCAS from the 1600-page pilot manual, leaving just one in a glossary. Senators said without knowledge of MCAS and how it could force dives, pilots would not know what was going on and how to recover, dooming the aircraft.
Muilenburg replied that hiding MCAS was ‘‘not consistent with Boeing’s values’’. He added the company worked within regulatory guidelines, which he conceded could be improved.
The hearing also focused on documents revealing joking emails between top Boeing pilots from November 2016 indicating problems with MCAS. These referred to ‘‘MCAS running rampant... trimming itself like crazy. I’m like, WHAT... Granted, I suck at flying but even this was egregious,’’ said pilot Mark Forkner in emails to colleague Patrik
Gustavsson about simulator flights. Other messages revealed the pilot thought he had ‘‘basically lied to the regulator (unknowingly)’’ and used ‘‘Jedi mind tricks’’ on them.
Texas senator Ted Cruz called Muilenburg’s testimony ‘‘stunning’’ after he said he was not aware of the contents of the emails ‘‘until the past few weeks’’ and ‘‘did not recall if I was briefed on them prior to that’’.
‘‘346 people are dead because of what these chief pilots described as egregious – that’s Boeing’s internal language,’’ Cruz said.
‘‘I find it stunning you say you first learned of this a couple of weeks ago. These are senior leaders at Boeing. How in the hell did no-one at Boeing bring this to your attention?
‘‘How did your team not put this document in front of you, run in with their hair on fire and say, ‘We’ve got a real problem here’. How did that not happen and what does it say about the culture at Boeing?’’
The Boeing chief was also challenged over a process by which the company was responsible for some of the certification work on the 737 Max, rather than the Federal Aviation Administration. Boeing had lobbied for this, with Muilenburg arguing that ‘‘industry expertise’’ improved safety.
Asked if he would support this policy being reversed, Muilenburg said he would take a ‘‘hard look’’ at it, only for one senator to hit back saying he was ‘‘not looking for support for a hard look, I want your commitment’’. – Telegraph Group