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Posted: 2019-03-22 03:32:22

Updated March 22, 2019 15:37:58

Boeing plans to make standard a safety feature that might have warned of problems that possibly played a role in Ethiopian and Indonesian plane crashes that killed almost 350 people, two officials briefed on the matter say.

Key points:

  • Boeing previously charged for a cockpit warning light alerting to sensor malfunction
  • It says it is now rolling out the safety light across the entire fleet, and older models
  • Europe and Canada will refuse safety investigations from US authorities

Boeing will mandate a previously optional cockpit warning light as part of a software update to the 737 MAX fleet that was grounded in the wake of the fatal crashes, said the officials, who asked not to be identified.

The Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed all 157 people on board on March 10 has set off one of the widest inquiries in aviation history and cast a shadow over the top-selling Boeing MAX series.

Initial investigations show similarities between the Ethiopian crash and the Indonesian Lion Air crash in October that killed all 189 crew and passengers.

A direct link between the crashes has not been proven, but attention has focused on an automated flight-control system, MCAS (Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System), that came into service two years ago with the MAX.

The system pushes the plane down if it detects a sharp vertical climb that could risk stalling the plane.

Pilots have slammed Boeing for not alerting them to the inclusion of the system in newer models after the 737 MAX's introduction.

Chicago-based Boeing, which the officials said also will retrofit older planes with the cockpit warning light, previously offered the alert, but it was not required by aviation regulators.

It is unclear how long it will take Boeing to refit existing MAX planes with new software or hardware.

Experts said it could take weeks or months to be done, and for regulators to review and approve the changes.

Europe and Canada snub US safety regulation

Regulators in Europe and Canada said they would conduct their own reviews of any new systems, snubbing the de facto global aviation safety authority, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Previously, Canada was united with the US when they vouched for the jet's safety in the days after the Ethiopian crash.

The software is designed to prevent a loss of lift, which can cause an aerodynamic stall, sending the plane downwards in an uncontrolled way.

In the Lion Air crash, investigators believe it may have been erroneously activated by a faulty sensor.

The FAA has said installation of the new software and related training was a priority.

Boeing did not immediately comment on the plan to make the safety feature standard.

But in London on Thursday, Randy Tinseth, Boeing's vice-president of commercial marketing, said the manufacturer was moving quickly to make software changes and expected the upgrade would be approved by the FAA in the coming weeks.

"That includes changes in the control laws of the airplane, an update of the displays, the flight manual, as well as the training," he said at a conference.

He added Boeing had tested the improvements in a simulator and in the air.

The product and training updates were being made "to further improve the safety that ensures that this will not happen again", according to Mr Tinseth.

He said it was too early to speculate on what the investigations would show, but defended Boeing's design and production processes.

Boeing also said it would slow work at its 737 plant in Seattle next week to allow employees to catch up on work that was previously delayed, but said this was because of winter storms and supplier delays and not fallout from the crashes.

Despite a global grounding of all current 737 MAX flights, Boeing has said it will continue to manufacture the jets to meet some 5,000 orders from carriers around the world.

Ongoing Lion Air investigation reveals pilot panic

In Jakarta, Indonesian investigators described the panic of pilots grappling with airspeed and altitude problems in the last moments of the Lion Air flight.

"It seemed the pilot felt he could no longer recover the flight. Then the panic emerged," Nurcahyo Utomo, an investigator at Indonesia's national transportation committee, said.

Lion Air pilots were found to have scrambled through a handbook to understand why the jet was lurching downwards in the final minutes before it hit the water.

A final report on the Lion Air crash is expected in August.

Boeing has said there was a documented procedure to handle the automated system at the heart of the problem, but questions have been asked over whether Boeing alerted pilots to it sufficiently.

In both flights, crews radioed about control problems shortly after take-off and sought to turn back.

Investigations of Boeing's conduct are starting to pile up, with several lawsuits already filed on behalf of victims of the Lion Air crash referring to the Ethiopian accident. Boeing declined to comment on the lawsuits.

Boeing held to the fire from US authorities

Consumer advocate and former US presidential candidate Ralph Nader lost a grand-niece in the Ethiopian crash and urged whistleblowers to help challenge the aviation industry and get to the bottom of what happened.

"They lulled us into complacency," he told the Wall Street Journal.

Simulators for the MAX are now being manufactured but they have yet to be delivered to most airlines that have ordered them.

Ethiopian Airlines said on Thursday the simulators are not designed to replicate the MCAS problems.

The airline is among the few that do have such a simulator but the captain of the doomed flight had no chance to practise on it before the fatal crash, a pilot colleague said.

In Washington, Boeing faces a criminal investigation by the US Justice Department and executives also will be summoned to a US Senate panel hearing for questioning.

ABC/Reuters

Topics: defence-and-aerospace-industries, air-and-space, air-transport, company-news, united-states

First posted March 22, 2019 14:32:22

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