American Airlines is the first domestic airline to resume flights on the Boeing 737 Max after it was retired from service more than a year ago, CNBC reported, adding that the craft’s return to service began with Flight 718, a round-trip trip from Miami to New York. This is the first time since March 2019 that the 737 Max will operate commercial service in the U.S. after being grounded due to two fatal plane crashes. However, it is already operating in other countries/regions, including Gol in Brazil, where the aircraft resumed flights on Dec. 9.
Boeing’s 737 Max is an updated version of its warhorse 737, which is the backbone of short, medium-haul routes around the world. The airline giant needed to update its equipment to better compete with Airbus’ A320, which led to a redesign of the existing 737 airframe.
Boeing says the adaptation time is so short that pilots don’t have to spend time on the simulator, a big selling point for airlines looking to save on training costs. But the plane’s newer, larger engines run the risk of airborne stalls, something Boeing doesn’t mention.
Instead, it built in a software system – the Maneuvering Characteristic Augmentation System (MCAS) – that would automatically activate to avoid these stalls. However, MCAS malfunctioned, causing two fatal crashes: Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. A subsequent investigation found that Boeing employees raised significant concerns about the system’s design and operation. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) added that oversight initially failed when it came to proving whether the aircraft was safe.
After the plane crashed, the Boeing 737 Max was grounded and Boeing spent the next 18 months working to resolve its problems. This process led to numerous other errors in the system that required their own time to fix, further delaying its return.
The FAA recertified the aircraft in November (regulators in Europe did the same thing in October), and American Airlines quickly conducted a test flight – with a media crew – in early December. The airline has confirmed that passengers who do not wish to fly the 737 Max will be offered a “flexible change of ticket”.
A number of other airlines are expected to take the 737 Max into the skies by 2021, with United Airlines planning to resume operations in February. Southwest Airlines, meanwhile, said it will resume operations sometime in the second quarter of 2021, at least through June. But it remains to be seen whether an airplane that serves as an example of how Boeing’s culture can fail, and a disaster on a larger scale, will gain the approval of skeptics.
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