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Boeing CEO links unintended MCAS activation to 737 MAX accidents
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A Boeing 737 MAX 8 is pictured outside the manufacturer’s factory in Renton, Washington, the United States. (AFP/Getty Images/Stephen Brashear )
B
oeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has linked the two accidents involving Lion Air flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 to erroneous activation of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS).
“As pilots have told us, erroneous activation of the MCAS function can add to what is already a high workload environment. It’s our responsibility to eliminate this risk. We own it and we know how to do it,” he said in a statement issued on Thursday.
Meanwhile, according to an initial report by Ethiopian investigators, the 737 MAX was having problems just two minutes after takeoff.
As quoted by nytimes.com, the report says that pilots initially followed safety procedures recommended by Boeing, performing actions on the emergency checklist, including cutting off electricity to an automatic system that was pushing the nose down, but they were still unable to prevent the jet from crashing.
Muilenburg said based on the release of the preliminary report of the Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 accident investigation, it’s apparent that in both flights the MCAS was activated in response to erroneous angle of attack information.
Muilenburg said after the Lion Air accident in October, Boeing had teams of top engineers and technical experts, who worked in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration and the company's customers to finalize and implement a software update.
Boeing anticipates the certification and implementation on the 737 MAX fleet worldwide in the coming weeks, he added.
“This update, along with the associated training and additional educational materials that pilots want in the wake of these accidents, will eliminate the possibility of unintended MCAS activation and prevent an MCAS-related accident from ever happening again,” Muilenburg said. (bbn)
