Design flaws linked to Boeing’s Lion Air crash, families of victims told
Design troubles in Boeing’s 737 Max have been linked to the crash of a Lion Air flight which killed almost 200 people.
Indonesia has reportedly shared a report into the details of a deadly crash with the families of victims, revealing that the Lion Air 737 MAX’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was based on incorrect assumptions.
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A Boeing spokeswoman told Reuters: “As the report hasn’t been officially released by the authorities, it is premature for us to comment on its contents.”
The slideshow presentation also showed a reliance on a single angle-of-attack sensor which made the MCAS system more vulnerable to failure, according to Reuters.
The Lion Air was one of two major crashes that killed 346 people in total and led to the 737 Max being grounded world-wide earlier this year.
The crisis has heaped pressure on the manufacturer’s directors in recent months, with commercial airplane unit chief Kevin McAllister being replaced yesterday.
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Boeing has also said in the last week that it regrets leaked Whatsapp messages from a former test pilot over erratic software behaviour on its 737 Max jet two years before the fatal incidents.
US regulator the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has told Boeing boss Dennis Muilenburg to give an “immediate” explanation for the delay in turning over the “concerning” document, which Boeing discovered some months ago.
In the messages from November 2016, then-chief technical pilot Forkner told a colleague the so-called MCAS anti-stall system – the same one linked to deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia – was “running rampant” in a flight simulator session.