BERLIN: A modified version of the Boeing 737 MAX, incorporating multiple safety upgrades, has been approved to renew flights in Europe, following almost two years of reviews after the plane was involved in two deadly crashes that saw the planes grounded worldwide, the European aviation safety agency mentioned Wednesday.
Modifications mandated by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, or EASA, include a package of software upgrades, a reworking of the electrical system, maintenance checks, operations manual updates, and new crew training.
“Now we have reached a significant milestone on a long road,” mentioned EASA executive director Patrick Kentucky, “Following extensive analysis by EASA, we’ve got decided that the 737 MAX can safely return to service. This assessment was carried out in full independence of Boeing or the Federal Aviation Administration and without any economic or political pressure – we asked difficult questions till we got answers and pushed for solutions that satisfied our exacting safety requirements. We carried out our own flight tests and simulator sessions and didn’t depend on others to do that for us.”
The planes have been grounded in March 2019 following the crashes of a Lion Air flight close to Jakarta on Oct. 29, 2018, and an Ethiopian Airlines flight on March 10, 2019, killing a total of 346 individuals. Investigators decided that the reason for the crashes was a faulty computer system that pushed the airplane’s nose downward in flight and couldn’t be overridden by pilots.
Modifications mandated by EASA, based in Cologne, Germany, include recertification of the airplane’s flight-control system, referred to as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, which was not a part of previous 737 models.
“Whereas the investigations assessed that the behavior of the MCAS and associated alerting systems were the clear main cause of the 2 crashes, EASA quickly realized that a far wider review of the 737 MAX was needed,” the agency mentioned.
EASA extended its analysis to the entire flight control system, with a particular focus on human factors — “the actual experience for a pilot of flying the airplane.”
To that end, all 737 MAX pilots will now need to undergo one-off special training, including on a simulator, to ensure they’re totally familiar with the redesigned airplane and able to deal with particular scenarios that might arise during the flight.
Kentucky mentioned EASA will proceed to observe 737 MAX operations carefully because the plane resumes service, “Let me be quite clear that this journey doesn’t finish right here”.
Despite the green-light from EASA, the actual return of the aircraft to the skies of Europe may still take some time, Airlines will still want to ensure their pilots have acquired the coaching needed to fly the plane, and that the maintenance and modifications needed have been carried out after the long grounding. Some EU states must lift their very own individual grounding notices as well and the UK, which has left the bloc, must make its own ruling.
The pandemic, in the meantime, has induced severe travel restrictions. Many airways are flying a fraction of their usual routes, which EASA mentioned might affect the pace of the aircraft’s return to business operations, the 737 MAX returned to the skies in the USA last month, after the Federal Aviation Administration accepted modifications that Boeing made to the automated flight control system, It has also been allowed by Brazil to resume flights and has been cleared by Transport Canada.
2021-01-27
