Boeing 737 MAX groundings
The Boeing 737 MAX passenger airliner was grounded worldwide between March 2019 and December 2020 – longer in many jurisdictions – after 346 people died in two similar crashes: Lion Air Flight 610 on October 29, 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019. By March 13, 2019, 51 regulators had grounded the plane;[3] by March 18, all 387 of the aircraft in service worldwide were grounded; the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had resisted grounding the aircraft until March 13, when it received evidence showing how similar the accidents were.
This article is about the 2019–2021 groundings of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. For the 2024 groundings of Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft, see Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.Date
- Lion Air accident: October 29, 2018
- Ethiopian Airlines accident: March 10, 2019
- First grounding: March 10, 2019 by Ethiopian Airlines (superseded)
- First grounding order: March 11, 2019 by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) – January 13, 2023[1]
- FAA grounding order March 13, 2019 – November 18, 2020
- Alaska Airlines accident: January 5, 2024
- FAA EAD grounding of Boeing 737 MAX 9 with door plug installed: January 6, 2024
- between accidents: 4 months and 10 days
- of grounding by the FAA: 1 year, 8 months and 5 days (619 days)
- 2024 737 MAX 9 grounding: 3 months and 23 days (114 days)
- 2019-2021 grounding:
Airworthiness revoked after second fatal accident caused by flight control failure - 2024 grounding:
Uncontrolled decompression of exit door plug failure
346 total:
- 189 on Lion Air Flight 610
- 157 on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302
In 2016, FAA approved Boeing's request to remove references to a new Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) from the flight manual. In November 2018, after the Lion Air accident, Boeing instructed pilots to take corrective action in case of a malfunction in which the airplane entered a series of automated nosedives. Boeing avoided revealing the existence of MCAS until pilots requested further explanation. In December 2018, the FAA privately predicted that MCAS could cause 15 crashes over 30 years. In April 2019, the Ethiopian preliminary report stated that the crew had attempted the recommended recovery procedure, and Boeing confirmed that MCAS had activated in both accidents.[4]
FAA certification of the MAX was subsequently investigated by the U.S. Congress and multiple U.S. government agencies, including the Transportation Department, FBI, NTSB, Inspector General and special panels. Engineering reviews uncovered other design problems, unrelated to MCAS, in the flight computers and cockpit displays. The Indonesian NTSC and the Ethiopian ECAA both attributed the crashes to faulty aircraft design and other factors, including maintenance and flight crew actions. Lawmakers investigated Boeing's incentives to minimize training for the new aircraft.[5] The FAA revoked Boeing's authority to issue airworthiness certificates for individual MAX airplanes and fined Boeing for exerting "undue pressure" on its designated aircraft inspectors.
In August 2020, the FAA published requirements for fixing each aircraft and improving pilot training. On November 18, 2020, the FAA ended the 20-month grounding, the longest ever of a U.S. airliner. The accidents and grounding cost Boeing an estimated $20 billion in fines, compensation, and legal fees, with indirect losses of more than $60 billion from 1,200 cancelled orders.[6][2][7] The MAX resumed commercial flights in the U.S. in December 2020, and was recertified in Europe and Canada by January 2021.[8]
In January 2024, the FAA grounded some 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9s with a configuration similar to that of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which suffered a mid-flight blowout of a plug filling an unused emergency exit on January 5, 2024, causing rapid decompression of the aircraft.
[9]
Popular culture[edit]
In September 2021, PBS released Boeing's Fatal Flaw, a Frontline documentary about how Boeing ignored critical safety issues with the 737 MAX resulting in the crash of two airliners.[158]
In February 2022, Netflix released Downfall: The Case Against Boeing, a documentary about the two plane crashes[159] directed by Rory Kennedy.[160]