It is not yet the official closing document - and yet it is revealing what is found in a report by Indonesian air traffic controllers, according to the "Wall Street Journal". The paper deals with the crash of a just three-month-old Boeing 737 Max of the airline Lion Air on 29 October 2018. 189 people had died then, as their machine shortly after the start after a wild descent nose-first into the Java Sea crashed.
The fact that the crash is related to the assistance system MCAS has long been considered certain. The system was supposed to prevent deliberate intervention in extreme situations that pilot control errors led to a stall. This threatened by a new position of the engines in this type rather than in earlier versions of the aircraft. However, the MCAS was apparently able to transmit dangerous commands when a single sensor it needed to rely on provided incorrect data.
A variety of factors
Likewise, the role of the pilots in the crash had been debated. The low-cost airline Lion Air was considered by industry insiders as an employer, the young and inexperienced crew members used to low wages. In addition, apparently repairs to the crashed jet were not performed properly. In a long text, the "New York Times Magazine" just once again analyzed the events that led to the crash. In it, among other things, the behavior of flight controllers is critically examined.
Part I of the story at SPIEGEL +
Part II of the story at Spiegel +
Part III of the story at Spiegel +
According to the report of the "Wall Street Journal", the Indonesian authorities also directly blame manufacturers Boeing. There have been problems with the design of the aircraft, as well as in the approval process, they say.
The final report will not be officially submitted until the beginning of November. So long, the Indonesian air accident does not want to speak officially. Boeing, too, said the report said only in general terms, that they cooperate with the Indonesian authorities.
The Boeing 737 Max is not allowed to fly since March. At that time another machine of this type had crashed, apparently also with the participation of the MCAS system. The accident in Ethiopia had killed 157 people.
New approval is a long process
Boeing has since been working to lift the launch ban. At the heart of the solution proposed by the company is an update of the MCAS system. However, this must be assessed and approved by the US Air Traffic Control Authority FAA, first on paper, then on test flights. Other regulators, such as EASA in Europe, are also expected to pass their own registration tests. An official timetable of when the 737 Max could fly again does not exist yet. It will not go too fast.
The FAA plans, according to the report, a package of measures for more security. So pilots should be trained better for flying the aircraft by hand. That should increase the safety, if the crew was confronted with faulty assistance systems. In addition, the emergency checklists should be adapted to better prioritize the upcoming decisions in crisis situations.
Perhaps the approval process for new aircraft could also be changed. In the current process in the US, manufacturers can take on some of the supervisory tasks themselves and thus control themselves. This practice had caused after the crashes of 737 Max for massive criticism. The US Congress is pushing for stricter requirements for air traffic control FAA to delegate less supervision.
