Boeing challenged to prove jets’ safety

Suspicions have arisen over software that may prove to be faulty

Aviation regulators worldwide laid down a challenge for Boeing to prove that its grounded 737 Max jets are safe amid suspicions that faulty software might have contributed to two crashes that killed 346 people in less than six months.

In a key step toward unearthing the cause of the Ethiopian Airlines crash, flight recorders from the plane arrived Thursday in France for analysis, although the agency in charge of the review said it was unclear whether data could be retrieved. The decision to send the recorders to France was seen as a rebuke to the United States, which held out longer than most other countries in grounding the jets.

Boeing executives announced that they had paused delivery of the Max, although the company plans to continue building the jets while it weighs the effect of the grounding.

In Addis Ababa, angry relatives of the 157 people who were killed Sunday stormed out of a meeting with airline officials, complaining they were not getting enough information.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration grounded the planes Wednesday, citing new satellite evidence showing the movements of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 were similar to those of Lion Air Flight 610, which crashed off Indonesia in October, killing 189 people.

The Max jets are likely to be idle for weeks while Boeing tries to assure regulators that the planes are safe.

At a minimum, aviation experts say, the plane maker will need to finish updating software that might have played a role in the Lion Air crash. Some industry officials think the plane maker and U.S. regulators may be forced to answer questions about the plane’s design.

Boeing said it supports the grounding as a precautionary step, while reiterating its “full confidence” in the safety of the 737 Max. it has previously characterized software upgrades as an effort to make a safe plane safer.

Engineers are changing the system designed to prevent an aerodynamic stall if sensors detect the jet’s nose is pointed too high and its speed is too slow.