[ad_1]
At a high-level briefing at the Federal Aviation Administration on March 28, officials revealed that "black box" data from Flight 302 of Ethiopian Airlines indicated that the Boeing 737's flight software MAX had activated an anti-stall feature that had pushed the nose of the plane down. moments after takeoff. Preliminary results officially link Boeing's Maneuvering Characteristics (MCAS) system to a second crash over a five-month period. The findings were based on data provided to FAA officials by Ethiopian investigators.
The MCAS was partly responsible for the crash of a 737 MAX Lion Air off Indonesia last October. The software, intended to regulate the behavior of the aircraft due to aerodynamic changes caused by the largest 737 MAX dual-flow reactors and their proximity to the wing, was designed to support the One of two angle attack sensors (AOA) located on the nose of the aircraft. determine if the aircraft could stall. Defective sensor data led the MCAS systems on Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines flights to react as if the aircraft was entering a stall and lowering the nose of the aircraft to gain speed.
On March 27, FAA Acting Director Daniel Ewell informed the Aviation Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that he had not conducted any Flight test prior to certification to determine pilot response to malfunction of MCAS. He stated that a group of pilots had examined the software in a simulator and had determined that no additional training was necessary for the 737 rated pilots to fly the 737 MAX.
Ewell defended the FAA's late decision to put the 737 MAX on the ground after the crash of Ethiopian Airlines, saying to Senators: "We may have been the last country to land the aircraft, but the United States and Canada were the first plane with data. "
Although the cause of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines has not yet reached a final conclusion, a Boeing spokesman told reporters at a press conference held on the phone that the company was working with the FAA to release a new version of MCAS based on additional sensors. data and be less aggressive in taking control of the aircraft. But the Boeing representative pointed out that the company stood behind the general safety of the aircraft. "Since the Lion Air accident, we have done extensive checks on all aspects of the 737 MAX systems," said the spokesman. He reviewed potential security issues. We have not discovered anything about us in these areas … These reviews are continuing and I am sure that they will last for some time.
Source link
