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With hundreds of deaths, investigators examine whether the accidents were caused by the same automated system.
• In October, Lion Air flight 610 crashed a few minutes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia. This was the first fatal accident involving a 737 Max. 189 people died.
• On 10 March, Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, involving the same jet model Max, also crashed a few minutes after take-off, killing the 157 pbadengers on board.
• Investigations into both accidents continue, but preliminary flight data and other evidence suggest similarities between the two accidents. Investigators are investigating whether an automated system designed to help the aircraft to avoid dropping out may be partly responsible.
• Although there are many models of the 737, the automated system only appears on the Max model. Two versions of Max are already flying, 8 and 9, and two more are on the way.
Max aircraft have been anchored around the world, putting at risk a major buyer of funds for Boeing.
• After the crash of Ethiopian Airlines, the aviation regulators, starting with those in China, stopped 737 Max aircraft. Governments around the world quickly followed suit and many banned the aircraft from flying in their airspace.
• As the 737 Max is a fairly new aircraft, it represents only a small part of the world fleet. As a result, the scheduling disruptions of most airlines due to strandings have been minimal.
"The security of the American people and all peoples is our paramount concern."
– President Trump, announcing that the United States would fail the plane.
• Boeing however has thousands of unfilled orders from airlines accounting for a half-trillion dollar business figure. Indonesian national airline Garuda has said it wants to cancel its order, making it the first airline to hesitate aboard a Boeing jet.
Boeing developed the automated system to help the 737 fly further, but the pilots did not necessarily know that it existed.
• The development of the Max began almost 10 years ago and the airlines started flying in 2017. US carriers are among Boeing's biggest customers for jets. The US and Southwest planes have dozens of fleets. The plane is also extremely popular in China and in other aeronautical markets in full swing around the world.
• The Max was the product of a corporate relationship between Boeing and his rival Airbus. Boeing has developed the aircraft – a one-aisle jet capable of seating about 200 pbadengers – to fly farther and more fuel-efficient than its previous 737s.
• Boeing has engineered new engines for the Max to achieve increased fuel efficiency. To compensate for the resulting aerodynamic differences, the company has implemented an automated anti-stall system called MCAS, which pushes the aircraft into a dive under certain circumstances in order to stabilize it.
• Most pilots were not trained in the operation of the system and many did not know that it existed. The Lion Air pilots were so confused and did not know how to turn off the system that they were spending their last moments praying while replaying the instruction manual.
"I think he knew that it was unrecoverable."
-Nurcahyo Utomo, Head of the Air Accidents Subcommittee of the Indonesian Committee for Transport Safety
• The Ethiopian Airlines pilot, proud of his safety record and his comprehensive training program, had not trained on a 737 Max simulator integrating the system. As pressure on Boeing increased, the company announced that it was working on updated training guidelines for pilots and a software patch for the automated system.
The close links between Boeing and the F.A.A. are examined as a result of the collisions and the response to them.
• The Federal Aviation Administration, which is constantly understaffed, has long delegated some of its responsibilities to companies it regulates, including Boeing. In fact, Boeing's employees were partly responsible for Max's certification of airworthiness.
"Boeing and the F.A.A. have had an almost symbiotic relationship. The relationship is too comfortable. "
– Michael Dreikorn, aviation safety expert who previously held a safety oversight role at F.A.A.
• The Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Transport and other agencies have opened investigations into the crash and relations between Boeing and F.A.A.
• Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, has scheduled an aviation safety hearing next week. He said it would not be the last.
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