Boeing reverses decision on Max

Planemaker now urging simulator training for pilots of troubled jet

Boeing is recommending simulator training for pilots of the Boeing Max jet as part of its efforts to “safely” return the aircraft to commercial service, 10 months after it was grounded following two fatal accidents.

That training would be in addition to computer-based training for Max pilots before the jets return to commercial service, the aircraft manufacturer said Tuesday.

“Public, customer and stakeholder confidence in the 737 MAX is critically important to us and with that focus Boeing has decided to recommend MAX simulator training combined with computer-based training for all pilots prior to returning the MAX safely to service,” interim Boeing CEO Greg Smith said.

Yet the new requirement, a reversal for Boeing, poses a hurdle for airlines and could further delay the jet’s return to service as pilots will have to be slotted into scarce simulators for training sessions. In Canada, only Air Canada has a simulator.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it would consider the request as part of its evaluation of the overall package of changes proposed by Boeing to address the design flaws cited in the crashes that killed 346 people.

In response, Transport Canada said it was “encouraged to see that Boeing is signalling the importance of simulator training” as part of the jet’s return to service.

Transport Canada said it laid out last April the concerns it wants addressed by Boeing and the FAA before it clears the jet to fly again in Canadian airspace.

“It would be premature for Transport Canada officials to determine the final flight crew procedures and training requirements before all the criteria and concerns have been addressed,” the department said Tuesday.

Transport Canada grounded the aircraft in March, along with aviation regulators worldwide. Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau said last year that airlines would have to train Max pilots in simulators before resuming service. “Simulators are the very best way, from a training point of view, to go over exactly what could happen in a real way and to react properly to it,” he said in April.

That view flew in the face of the opinions of Boeing and FAA, which maintained that pilots already trained to fly the 737 did not require additional simulator training to transition to the Max models.

But the two crashes — and the questionable performance of both flight crews during those in-flight emergencies — have made pilot training and human factors a key element of the jet’s safe return to service.

The crash of Lion Air Flight 610 in Indonesia in October 2018, followed by Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 at Addis Ababa last March, have been blamed on the jet’s manoeuvring characteristics augmentation system (MCAS).

That system was installed on this latest version of the Boeing 737 to counter pitch characteristics of the new design. However, because of erroneous data, the system pitched the jets into a nosedive that the pilots were unable to recover from.

Boeing is working on design changes to ensure the system doesn’t needlessly activate and to ensure pilots can override it.