On board the first passenger flight of the Boeing 737 Max since the grounding

• I just flew on the first passenger flight of the Boeing 737 Max since the plane came to rest in March 2019.
• American Airlines operated the demonstration flight a few weeks before its intention to reintroduce the Max into regular customer service.
• I was confident that the flaws that contributed to the two fatal plane crashes had been corrected – but traveling during the pandemic left me less reassured than expected.
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In March 2019, the Boeing 737 Max was grounded around the world after the second of two fatal crashes caused by a fault in the plane. A total of 346 people were killed.

Today, I boarded the plane for its first passenger flight of 2020, which the Federal Aviation Administration cleared after 20 months of inspections, deliberations, hearings, redesigns, prosecutions and debates.

Despite reduced travel demand during the pandemic, American Airlines is pulling its fleet from storage and plans to start using it for passenger flights before the end of the year.

As part of the return to service, the airline plans to invite some passengers to tour the plane, with pilots and other employees outlining changes Boeing made to address safety risks that contributed to the crashes. .

American also invited several reporters to participate in a Max demonstration flight, as well as a briefing and presentation of the changes to its maintenance base in Tulsa, Oklahoma, another aspect of the drive to restore passenger confidence in the plane after two years of overwhelming headlines.

As I wrote before, despite the various complex issues and flaws that contributed to the two Max crashes, I felt comfortable flying the plane when it was returned to service. I decided to take the opportunity to put my money where my mouth was, even though I was nervous about traveling as the coronavirus pandemic looks set to explode even more out of control at United States: This was my first flight since much of the country went into lockdown this spring.

Still, it appeared to be the first Max flight with passengers since the grounding (with the exception of airline, Boeing, or FAA employees), even though it was not a commercial revenue flight. open to the general public. It’s interesting, and I decided to make the trip anyway, relying on personal protective equipment and great caution to try to minimize the risk of COVID-19.

Here’s what I thought after the first passenger flight.