Two very similar accidents in less than six months for the new Boeing 737-800MAX

Less than Two years after the introduction of the Boeing 737-800MAX, the newest and most modern version of the venerable 737 family, two aerial tragedies have already cast a shadow on the plane.

The first accident occurred on October 29, 2018, when an airline 737-800MAX low cost Indonesia Lion Air He rushed to the sea 12 minutes after taking off from Jakarta. Its 189 occupants have died, the most terrible accident to date for a 737.

The second event took place on Sunday. An airplane of the same model, operated by Ethiopian Airlines, He fell to the ground six minutes after takeoff from Adis Adeba airport, killing 157 people on board.

In both cases, it was the same commercial aircraft model of the latest generation, the Boeing 737-800MAX, and in both cases, the aircraft was less than six months old and fell to the ground shortly after takeoff.

The PK-LQP registration aircraft, operated by Lion Air, It was delivered in August 2018. Meanwhile, the ET-AVJ only entered the Ethiopian Airlines fleet in November.

These are the only two fatal accidents recorded in the short life of the airplane model that flew for the first time in 2016 and went into service on May 22, 2017 on a flight of Malaysian airline Malindo Air, as indicated Global Flight.

The accident in Africa is poorly known, where rescue teams were still working. At the moment, the CEO of the airline, Tewolde GebreMariam, He said at a press conference that "the pilot mentioned that he was having difficulties and that he wanted to come back. While the monitoring site Flightradar24 noted on his Twitter account that the flight had a "unstable vertical speed" after takeoff

But something else is known about Lion Air flight 610, although the investigation is still ongoing.

This 737-800MAX was inscribed a problem in one of its engines during a previous flight performed the night before the accident, as well as a series of flaws in the measurements of their instruments on different flights.

Lion Air's engineers had supposedly replaced the sensors and solved the problem, allowing the aircraft to return to its functions.

Then flight 610 took off early in the morning with good weather between Jakarta airport and Pangkal Pinang, two cities located in Indonesia.. Just 12 minutes after leaving the ground, the crew reported a problem and requested permission to return to Jakarta, after which the call was interrupted.

The plane fell at high speed into the sea, 34 kilometers from the island of Java. 181 pbadengers and 8 crew members died.

An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) of Indonesia concluded that the numerous speed and angle failures recorded during previous flights should have prevented the 737-800MAX from returning to operations, as the newspaper reported The Guardian.

Although the results of the NTSC report are preliminary, it appears thatA new erroneous measurement of speed and altitude has brought the new MCAS, which seeks to prevent the aircraft from stalling, to correct the inclination of the nose of the aircraftcausing a chop.

The pilots, with considerable experience, could not solve the problem because they were not properly trained in the use of the system or its cancellation, which generated cross-charges between the guilds of pilots and Boeing for the correct training in the new system.

ALPA, the United States airline pilots union, even denounced the fact that airlines and pilots were not informed of some changes made by Boeing to their 737-MAX models, including those related to MCAS, have reported The Guardian.

In November 2018, the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States (FAA) and Boeing issued an emergency directive for all 737-MAX users. the risk of erroneous sensor readings and MCAS effects, requiring a review of equipment and procedures.

It is not yet known if the accident in Ethiopia is linked to this failure, although the conditions are apparently similar.

The Boeing 737 MAX, in its 700, 800, 900 and 1000 versions, is the latest version of a short and medium-range aircraft that flew for the first time in 1967bequeath to become one of the most successful commercial airplanes in history.

The latter variant has a range of between 6,000 and 7,000 kilometers at a cruising speed of 838 kilometers per hour and a capacity of 172 to 230 pbadengers.