Security News > 2020 > September > Proposed US fix for Boeing 737 Max software woes does not address Ethiopian crash scenario, UK pilot union warns

The British Airline Pilots' Association has told American aviation regulators that the Boeing 737 Max needs better fixes for its infamous MCAS software, warning that a plane crash which killed 149 people could happen again.

Airlines, in contrast, are broadly happy with proposed changes to the Boeing 737 Max, even as trade unions bellow at the US Federal Aviation Administration that more needs to be done.

In public comments submitted to the FAA's notice of proposed rulemaking, BALPA warned that one of the proposed workarounds for a future MCAS failure could lead to a repeat of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302.

With Boeing relying on regulators certifying the 737 Max as an incremental advance rather than a whole new design, MCAS was necessary to get it through FAA certification without regulators imposing expensive training requirements on the new aircraft before pilots could fly it.

Its pilots disabled electric trim motors that had been activated by MCAS and, crash investigators believed, tried to use the manual trim wheel in the cockpit to physically undo what the software had done - following Boeing procedures published after the Lion Air crash.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/09/23/boeing_737_max_faa_balpa/