Ryanair buying Boeing 737 Maxs
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DublinHead54
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The investigation into 737 Max found issues with the culture, training, safety etc. I would hazard a guess that Boeing and the 737 Max is not an outlier in the airline industry and thus given the spotlight on the 737 Max and subsequent changes and safety test should provide some additional confidence in flying on a plane.
Black Sheep
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Like many others I'll be on the first plane out to my favourite haunts in sunnier climes and have no problem with the 737 Max. It has to be the safest aircraft on earth after all that publicity.
finding tools in the fuel tanks is definitely a culture thing, someone has a grudge
Whilst there is a wee bit of concern, given this aircrafts history, and the somewhat peculiar safety review process, I will fly on it. I will be more confident when it's flying for a year or so sans anything unforeseen. My issue is more with independent regulation in the US than anything else. Hopefully for everyone, it proves to be the safest plane in the air.
I hope that Trump did not rush the safety certificate through the system in his quest to create more havoc before he leaves office.
European regulators conducted their own review also. The independence issue in the US is a valid concern.
What ive learned from the 737 Max investigation is that the aircraft is not designed from the ground up like the Airbus A320 but that it’s a 50 year old design which has had modern engines specially developed to keep the 737 design in service. It seems these measures have significantly changed the handling characteristics of the aircraft which in turn have required further modifications to compensate. It appears to me that the 737 Max is a compromised aircraft but if the regulators deem it safe then who are us non experts to disagree?
As I understand it, the fault was the pito tubes which gives the air speed, there is only 1 where as most aircraft have 2. the software of the flight control couldn't handle the pito tube failure in auto and the pilots had not been trained to handle it in manual
Pitot tubes were not the cause of the Max's problems. All modern airline jets have at least three active/measuring pitots along with static pitot(s) all with inbuilt redundancy.
The main problem of the 737Max was seen to be the 'MCAS' ( Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System ).
This system was deemed necessary as with the new engine design and their placement being in a more forward position than that of previous generation 737s the climb characteristics were changed. To help alleviate and therefore hopefully not necessitate a different type rating for pilots the MCAS was implemented in the hope that the aircraft would appear, to the flight crew, to behave the same/similar as say, the 738/739's.
MCAS was designed to use only one of the two AoA ( Angle of Attack ) sensors and would operate multiple times, when a potential stall was signalled.
This has now been changed in that the software has been modified and now uses both AoA sensors, not one. The MCAS also now only activates once and AFAIK its flight authority has also been decreased.
Poor implementation of what was seen as a safety system and even poorer and or non existent pilot training has been cited as the root of the 737Max's tragedies.
PS. I have deliberately 'simplified' the above as it gets quite technical and would be even more boring to read. But the 'jist' of the cause I hope comes across.
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There was no simple on/off switch to disable MCAS, if that's what you mean.
Rather the PIC had to disable the semi/automatic horizontal stabiliser (rear wings) trim to remove MCAS from the equation of pitch control and then manually adjust the stab trim.
Even knowing this takes time (many pilots were not even aware of MCAS) and depending on how far out of trim the aircraft is , its speed and its altitude the time this takes may not be enough to allow a recovery to stabilised flight.