Boeing Co said on Wednesday (March 27) it had reprogrammed the software (MCAS – Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) on its 737 MAX passenger jet to prevent erroneous data from triggering an anti-stall system that is under mounting scrutiny following two deadly nose-down crashes in the past five months.
The planemaker said the anti-stall system, which is believed to have repeatedly forced the nose lower in at least one of the accidents, in Indonesia last October, would only do so one time after sensing a problem, giving pilots more control.
It will also be disabled if two airflow sensors that measure the “angle of attack,” or angle of the wing to the airflow, a fundamental parameter of flight, offer widely different readings, Boeing said. Reuters reported those details earlier this week.
Existing 737 pilots will also have extra computer-based training, following criticism that MCAS was not described in the aircraft manual. Boeing has previously said existing cockpit procedures would cover any example of runaway controls caused by MCAS.
The changes were drawn up in response to the Lion Air crash but are seen as crucial to regaining the trust of pilots, passengers and regulators after the Ethiopia crash prompted a worldwide grounding Boeing 737 MAX planes.
Ethiopian officials and some analysts have said the Ethiopian Airlines jet behaved in a similar pattern before crashing shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa, but that investigation is still at an early stage.
The changes eliminate a single point of failure that existed in the original design by exposing MCAS to two blade-shaped sensors designed to measure the “angle of attack.”
[…] Ethiopian Airlines earlier ordered for 30 737 Max planes from Boeing of which 5 were delivered and Boeing has reportedly fixed the bug that caused the crash that might have been responsible for the ET302 crash and the Lion Air crash, Tewolde the […]
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