Boeing calls 737 MAX safe, suggests pilot error; investigators question certification
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Pilots fought against an automated system that pitched a Boeing jetliner’s nose down repeatedly because of a faulty sensor until they finally lost control and plunged into the Java Sea last month, Indonesian investigators said Wednesday.
At a news conference, safety officials said they were still struggling to understand why the plane crashed, killing all 189 people on board.
In a statement following release of the report, Chicago-based Boeing declared that the MAX, its newest plane, is safe. The manufacturer played up the possibility of pilot error.
Boeing noted that the crew of the plane’s previous flight one day earlier had responded correctly to the automatic nose-down pitch and flew the plane manually. They also ran safety checklists. The preliminary report does not say whether pilots on the deadly flight took those steps, Boeing pointed out.
Boeing has said that the procedure to correct an automatic nose-down pitch is in the plane’s operating manual and pilots should have known about it. Several experts said, however, that Boeing likely will have to consider changes in the new anti-stall system.
The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Commission’s Nurcahyo Utomo said investigators were trying to figure out from interviews with engineers why they certified that the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was airworthy and whether they had followed required maintenance procedures. Pilots of previous flights had reported problems with control systems on the brand-new jet.
The board issued a preliminary report that stopped short of placing blame for the crash, but it provided new details about the pilots’ struggle to fly the highly automated jet.