US aviation firm Boeing ‘tested the safety of its own planes’

‘Rush to get 737 Max in the air’

BOEING carried out its own, flawed safety tests on the 737 Max plane as it rushed to catch up with European rival Airbus, whistleblowers claim.

Sources from the US Federal Aviation Administration say the regulator allowed Boeing to perform key safety assessments of the aircraft’s controversial anti-stalling system, which experts suspect may have caused the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the Lion Air crash five months earlier.

In both crashes flight tracking data showed the aircraft’s altitude had fluctuated sharply, as the plane appeared to climb and descend erratically.

Current and former engineers at the aviation watchdog also say they were put under pressure by their managers in 2015 to approve Boeing’s safety analysis of the Manoeuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), according to an investigation by The Seattle Times.

It is claimed a key reason for the rush to get the Boeing 737 Max in the air as soon as possible was the need to compete with Toulouse-based Airbus, which had already launched the fuel-efficient A320neo.

But according to the whistleblowers, Boeing’s analysis included crucial flaws, including understating the power of the anti-stalling system to push the nose of the aircraft down.

Boeing and the FAA declined to comment on the claims. The 737 Max has been grounded by authorities around the world since the Ethiopian Airlines crash near the country’s capital Addis Ababa, in which 157 died.

The Lion Air plane crashed into the Java sea near Jakarta, Indonesia, last October, killing all 189 people on board.