Boeing 737 Max: has been found the main defendant for the tragedies

For who is not of the airplanes sector at the end they are all the same, at least there is the biggest airplane and the smaller one. However there are same models that we learnt to know and of which we remember the name for a reason or another. The 737 Max, the last arrived of the company Boeing, which has been already bought by many companies all over the world, became famous, by ending on the headlines of the newspapers of the whole planet.

However its reputation is due to the crime news, the one that might be the successor of the Boeing 737 became an enemy from which stay away.

The 737 Max starts to work in the 2017 and just an year later the first accident took place, after few months it’s the time of the second one. Two similar accidents which happend with the same model of vehicle that brought to the stop of its usage in every country of the world.

Then the investigations arrived, and with them the problems’ resolution. It seems that it was a software problem, but trust them again is hard.

The accidents

The 29th October of the 2018 the flight JT610 of the Lion Air, a boeing 737 Max, crashed in the Indian Ocean 12 minutes after the take off. Precious minutes during which the pilots tried to take back the control of the airplane, whitout know that the problem was caused by the software. In that first accident 189 people died.

The last 10th of March, instead, the same destiny has befallen to the flight ET302, of the Ethiopian Airlines, crashed, this time, just 6 minutes after the take off. In this second accident 157 people died.

The two accident soon shown many similiraties and in the whole world many companies and countries started to ban the usage of it, untile the total disposal of the vehicles, to make checks and investigations.

Before all, in the 2018, were already delivered 750 models in the whole world, and other 5000 were in order.

The first problems of the 737 Max

Let’s start from the first accident, which had a fewer media resonance, compared with the second one. The vehicle was at its first flight after a careful review after same problems previously saw.

“The automatic system gave to the airplane a command of trim down, which means to put down the airplane’s nose. In that occasion the crew followed the emergency procedures provides for this kind of cases, by disconetting the flight’s automatic system through the physical removal of the fuse that supplied it and carring with the manual flight until the destination”.

Everything should start by the engine’s upgrade which requires a different trim.

After that first almost touched accident on the vehicle has been changed the sensor but without obtaining the wished results. The next flight ended with the tragedy, without that the pilots were able to understand where the problem was. A course correction of the auto pilot basically invisible.

The software

Finally, to avoid the problem and to avoid that other tragedies happend, Boeing decided to equip all the 737 Max with the new software MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System).

The system has the duty to keep the airplane’s nose with the right trim and to avoid the airplane’s stall.

By the way the Boeing company considered the change notewhorty and the presence of the software wasn’t even written on the manual.

When, the second accident, the one that saw involved an airplane of the Ethiopian Airlines, happened, the MCAS encountered a malfunction, probably the pilots didn’t even know that this was there.

Anyway, many investigations have been made, and we can’t point the finger toward none yet.

Boeing corrects the errors

It’s, instead, of just few days ago the new that Boeing claimed to have corrected the software MCAS’ errors and that, so, this doesn’t have any more any problem.

“The substantial changes made will make less aggressive and much more manageble for the pilots the system that provides the excessive rotation of the airplane’s nose”.

The technology that might helped to save lifes in case of danger, instead, caused same human victims.

So the fear grows and who knows if even though the changes made there will be someone that still trust on the last Boeing vehicle.

Meanwhile, even though the recent tragedies, we must remember that the airplane remains, statistically, the safest transport in the world.

This post is also available in: Italiano