Daily Insight: Wednesday 13 March 2019: The FAA stands alone on the MAX

News

The FAA has not followed safety agencies around the world and has not grounded the Boeing 737MAX.  With Transport Canada joining the ban today, that leaves the US as the only jurisdiction in which the 737MAX is still operating.  

But in examining why other countries grounded the MAX, the answer is quite simple — they believe that a flaw that was discovered in the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation  System (MCAS) on the aircraft, which relies on sensors input to the system.  Designed to push the nose down should the angle of attack of the aircraft indicate a risk of stalling, the system can apparently surprise pilots by overriding their commands, and even the autopilot.  Compounding the problem, according to the New York Times, Boeing and the FAA decided that pilots did not need to be informed about changes to the flight control system when transitioning from the 737-800 to the 737MAX8.