![]() The result of the tug-of-war between the pilot and the flawed MCAS is an undulating porpoise-like flight path that causes the plane to lose altitude and airspeed until it crashes.įollowing the Lion Air crash, Boeing issued warnings as part of the Operations Manual Bulletin and the FAA followed with Airworthiness Directive. When pilots react to the sudden downward motion of the aircraft and pull up on the flight controls, the MCAS again falsely senses a nose-up problem and pushes the nose down again. Although the MCAS should have only operated when it sensed an imminent stall, the system is flawed and, in fact, attempts to push the 737 nose downward when it should not. Its purpose was to automatically adjust the horizontal tail stabilizer and cause the nose to push downward whenever the system sensed the plane was continuing to climb. It was designed to be hidden and separate from the autopilot system. The MCAS is a new flight control system that Boeing surreptitiously incorporated into the retrofitted 737. What is t he MCAS and how is it defective? Rather than redesign the airframe or correct the pitch problem through proper engineering, Boeing decided to simply patch the deadly flaws with a new automatic flight-control MCAS system. Moving the wings and engines forward also changed the aircraft’s flight characteristics and caused the nose of the plane to have a tendency to pitch up while in flight.Ĭontinued, uncontrolled upward pitch will cause an aircraft to lose forward airspeed and eventually stall and crash. As a result, the wings were also moved slightly farther forward. The new engines required more ground clearance than allowed by the older 737 design so Boeing moved the new 737 MAX engines farther forward on the aircraft. Retrofitting the 737 design to compete with Airbus required Boeing to install larger and more efficient engines. The original aircraft was built low to the ground to allow baggage handlers easy access to the plane’s underbelly luggage compartments and to allow passengers to board using older stairways. However, facing competition from newer and more efficient designs from aircraft-maker Airbus, and in an effort to salvage dwindling orders for its aircraft, Boeing scrambled to retrofit the old 737 design and rename it the 737 MAX. The original 737 design was released in 1967 and has been a money-making aircraft for Boeing for many years. The 737 MAX has been grounded worldwide since shortly after the Ethiopian Airlines crash and will remain grounded for the foreseeable future. ![]() The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told Boeing the fix was to be implemented by the end of March 2019 however, the final implementation is expected to take much longer and could require a more extensive overhaul of the 737 MAX design. The company began developing a “fix” for the MCAS software following the Lion Air crash, yet it was not ready to be installed prior to the Ethiopian Airlines crash. Boeing also claims the problem rests in the MCAS. They both point to the malfunctioning Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) or the automated flight control system. The two aircraft were new, and preliminary investigations into the deadly crashes show alarming similarities. The Lion Air crash occurred in October 2018 and the Ethiopian Airlines crash occurred in March 2019. Two separate Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes, one involving Lion Air and the other Ethiopian Airlines, killed 346 people in a span of less than five months.
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