October 29, 2018, 6:20 a.m.
Lion Air 610 Boeing 737 MAX takes off from Jakarta Airport, Indonesia.
13 minutes later, the aircraft fell into the Java Sea.
The 181 passengers and the 8 crew members died.
Boeing does not know it yet, but this accident will cost it dearly, immobilizing a large part of its fleet, and will be only the first episode of a black series which, two years and a health crisis later, seems to continue. .
A few months after the crash in Indonesia on March 10, 2019, the Ethiopian Airlines flight, which connects Addis Abeda to Nairobi, crashes six minutes after takeoff.
The 157 occupants of the aircraft were killed.
The scenario is the same as for the Lion Air crash: the plane only gained very little altitude and then the pilots lost control.
The anti-stall system is involved.
The 737 MAX nightmare
In the hours that followed, the consequences were not long in coming: the airspace was gradually being closed all over the world.
On March 12, several countries, including France, decided to ban their overflight by these aircraft.
The measure will be generalized to all European airspace later that same day.
The next day, Canada makes the same decision.
The United States, birthplace of Boeing, in turn ban the flights of the 737 MAX after resisting.
For Boeing, this is the final blow: its entire fleet of 737 MAXs is grounded.
"The airlines have resumed their orders and exchanged their planes with Boeing", reminds the Parisian Bertrand Vilmer, aeronautical engineer and expert at Icare.
To get an idea of the scale of the industrial disaster, it is important to remember what the 737 MAX represented for Boeing, ordered en masse from the first exits of the factory in 2017. The objective is then to compete with the Airbus A320neo , less energy consuming and therefore more profitable.
But to speed things up, the aircraft manufacturer decided to adapt the 737 rather than create a new aircraft.
A manipulation which allows Boeing to bypass certification by the American regulator which delegates this responsibility to it: the aircraft manufacturer therefore becomes its own regulator.
Another advantage, which will prove to be fatal, the pilots already trained on the 737 do not receive new training.
However, analysis Bertrand Vilmer, the changes are such on the 737 MAX that "it is as if they had built a new plane".
Among the new features, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), supposed to prevent the device from stalling, which is triggered alone if it is not deactivated.
It is a malfunction on this tool, which the pilots could not a priori be able to deactivate, which would be responsible for the two crashes.
"From there, there was a crisis of confidence in Boeing on the part of the general public, the airlines and the authorities", explains Bertrand Vilmer.
Resignations and abysmal losses
Within Boeing, these accidents caused a stir.
Kevin McAllister, the boss of the automaker's airliners branch, landed in October 2019. Later, two days before Christmas, boss Dennis Muilenburg was fired, replaced by Dave Calhoun.
“The Board of Directors has decided that a leadership change is needed to restore confidence in the company's future as it strives to rebuild relationships with regulators, customers and everyone else. stakeholders ”, explains Boeing in a press release.
At the same time, Boeing is cutting its workforce and wants to increase to 130,000 employees by the end of the year, against 160,000 at the end of 2019.
In December 2019, Boeing announced that it was ceasing production of its Boeing 737 MAX.
"There are now about 400 planes in stock," wrote the aircraft manufacturer in a press release, explaining that they are waiting for a new certification of their aircraft to restart production.
At the same time, some companies are withdrawing and cancellations are increasing.
In 2019, the aircraft manufacturer found itself in the red for the first time since 1997 and Airbus overtook its competitor for the first time in history.
The Covid, a disaster for the aviation sector
The hope of raising the bar the following year was showered from January 2020 by the health crisis.
Nobody knows then, but passenger traffic is about to plummet by more than 66% over one year, according to figures from the International Air Transport Association.
Never seen.
The long-term horizon then darkens: the 777X project, designed as the world's largest aircraft with only two engines, is now down in the wing and the controls are melting.
From 350 a year ago, the aircraft manufacturer now has less than 200. And with two years behind the delivery schedule.
With an income cut by a good quarter in 2020, Boeing nevertheless thinks it will see the end of the tunnel last November: the American, Brazilian and Canadian authorities give the green light to a return in the air of the 737 MAX.
At the end of January, European airspace was again open to the aircraft.
Even if confidence is achieved - several airlines allow passengers the option of canceling their ticket if they do not want to fly in a 737 MAX, Boeing is keen to close this chapter.
Last month, the American giant therefore made an agreement with the American Department of Justice: against 2.5 billion dollars (a fine, but also penalties for companies and compensation for bereaved families), the charges of " fraudulent behavior ”are discontinued.
Another accident of new planes grounded
For Boeing, the horizon therefore seemed to finally clear… until last Saturday: the engine of a 777 to reach Denver in Hawaii, exploded, causing a rain of debris in its wake.
Another incident on a Boeing 747 took place the same day in the Netherlands.
"With the few thefts that there are at the moment, with the crisis, there was statistically little chance that something would happen", recognizes Bertrand Vilmer.
But here is Boeing again forced to immobilize 128 copies of its flagship aircraft.
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VIDEO.
Burning plane wreaks havoc on Denver neighborhoods
If the engine is involved here, it is the image of Boeing that suffers.
“People will say to themselves:
It's still a Boeing
!
Not that it's the fault of Pratt & Whitney, the engine manufacturer, ”explains Bertrand Vilmer.
But the specialist puts the difficulties of the American giant into perspective: “It is a flagship company in the United States, a bit like Renault in France.
It remains supported by the government and the states where its factories are located.
If that affects its turnover, it is consolidated elsewhere by its other activities in space, helicopters, fighter planes or the field of armaments… ”On the other side of the Atlantic, Airbus something to celebrate.
“During this time, we don't talk about him and sometimes it's better.
"