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- Southwest Airlines and FAA officials who monitor the carrier never knew that Boeing had deactivated a standard safety feature on its 737 Max jet aircraft when Southwest introduced the model into its fleet, reported Andy Pastzor of the company. Wall Street Journal.
- According to a new WSJ survey, FAA officials have considered Southwest's Max Fleet unsuccessful on two separate occasions, but discussions were soon abandoned.
- Boeing has not yet clarified why this feature had been turned off, but in March, it unveiled a hotfix and updated training procedures for the 737 Max.
- Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.
The officials of Southwest Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in charge of monitoring the carrier were unaware that a standard safety device designed to warn pilots of sensor malfunctions had been disabled on the Boeing 737 Max when Southwest started driving the model in 2017, said Andy Pastzor of the Wall Street Journal.
In previous 737 models, the safety function alerted pilots when a sensor called "angle-attack pallet" incorrectly transmitted the nose of the aircraft, according to Pastzor. In the Max, it works as such while also indicating whether the Maneuvering Feature Enhancement System (MCAS), a new automated system associated with the October Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes in March, risks badly go off; but these alerts are only activated if operators have purchased additional security features, wrote Pastzor.
Like other airlines operating Max flights, Southwest did not learn this change until the day after the Lion Air crash, Pastzor reported.
According to WSJ's investigation, which reviewed documents, the carrier then asked Boeing to reactivate the alerts on his Max fleet, which prompted FAA inspectors to immobilize Max's fleet up to $ 500,000. it was determined whether additional training was needed for the pilots – but the idea was quickly abandoned. .
Once the feature was reactivated, some FAA officials again considered basing the Southwest 737 Max fleet to determine if the pilots needed new training – and again, the discussions, which were rolled out by email, were dropped after a few days, reporter from Pastkor.
Read more: Boeing unveils how it will repair the 737 Max that was grounded after 2 fatalities in recent months
Boeing has not yet clarified why this feature had been turned off, but in March, he unveiled a hotfix and updated the training procedures for the 737 Max, reported Benjamin Zhang of Business Insider.
Most of the updates will concern the MCAS, which "will provide additional layers of protection if the AOA sensors provide erroneous data," Boeing said in a statement. The updates are also aimed at reducing the pilots' workload during emergency situations, reported Zhang.
"Boeing will also modify the pilot training process to further focus on the understanding of the 737 Max control system, MCAS features and associated crew procedures, as well as associated software modifications," Zhang wrote, adding that the training would also highlight the differences between the previous generation 737 NG and the new 737 Max.
In March, Boeing was still working with regulators to finalize software certification and training updates.
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