Boeing grounds entire global fleet of MAX 8 aircraft amid ‘new evidence’
Reports from pilots of strange messages on MAX 8 jets have been revealed as Boeing finally announces it will ground the aircraft worldwide.
Boeing has finally caved to pressure and grounded its entire global fleet of 737 MAX aircraft, after fresh evidence was found at the Ethiopian Airlines crash site and new reports revealed American pilots’ concerns about the plane.
The US plane-maker said it continued to have “full confidence in the 737 MAX” but had decided to suspend its 371 planes worldwide “out of an abundance of caution and in order to reassure the flying public of the aircraft’s safety”.
It made the decision after consulting with the US Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board, which were investigating the crash of a MAX 8 plane in Ethiopia.
It followed US President Donald Trump issuing an executive order to ground the Boeing 737 MAX 8.
#FAA statement on the temporary grounding of @Boeing 737 MAX aircraft operated by U.S. airlines or in a U.S. territory. pic.twitter.com/tCxSakbnbH
— The FAA (@FAANews) March 13, 2019
Many nations had already barred the Boeing 737 MAX 8 from its airspace, but until Trump’s announcement, America’s Federal Aviation Administration had said that it didn’t have any data to show the jets are unsafe.
Mr Trump cited “new information” that had come to light in the ongoing investigation into incident. He did not elaborate, however the FAA later confirmed that new evidence found at the Ethiopian crash site connected the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines accidents.
“All of those planes are grounded, effective immediately,” Mr Trump said during a scheduled briefing on border security.
Mr Trump said any aeroplane currently in the air will go to its destination and then be grounded.
As Mr Trump made the announcement from the White House, a map by Flightradar24 showed all the MAX 8s in US airspace at that exact moment.
President Trump has stated all US #737MAX will be grounded. The FAA has informed airlines. Awaiting official statement and/or Airworthiness Directive from @FAANews. Currently active MAX flights shown below. pic.twitter.com/xk4XEdl1wa
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 13, 2019
He added all airlines and affected pilots had been notified. Mr Trump said the safety of the American people was of “paramount concern,” and added that the FAA would soon put out a statement on the action.
Trump said the decision to ground the aircraft “didn’t have to be made, but we thought it was the right decision.”
He did not say if reports of pilot concerns were a factor.
The president insisted the announcement was co-ordinated with aviation officials in Canada, US carriers and aircraft manufacturer Boeing.
“Boeing is an incredible company,” Mr Trump said. “They are working very, very hard right now and hopefully they’ll quickly come up with an answer.”
Shares in Boeing bounced erratically after Trump’s decision to ground all of the top-selling 737 MAX 8 aircraft, to which much of the world’s airspace is now closed.
But the stock price clambered back into the green for the day, rising 0.5 per cent to $377.12, putting it up for the first time in three days but still down nearly 11 per cent, or more than $USD28 billion ($AUD40 billion) since before Sunday’s deadly crash in Ethiopia.
The Dow, where Boeing’s shares are heavily weighted, rose by triple digits, closing up 0.6 per cent at 25,702.89.
In a statement, the FAA said the decision to ground Boeing MAX aircraft operated by US airlines or in US territory came “as a result of the data gathering process and new evidence collected at the site and analysed”, as well as “newly refined satellite data”.
“The grounding will remain in effect pending further investigation, including examination of information from the aircraft’s flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders,” the statement said.
“An FAA team is in Ethiopia assisting the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) as parties to the investigation of the flight 302 accident. The agency will continue to investigate.”
‘DONT SINK DONT SINK!’
It comes hours after at least four pilots made reports following the October crash of a Lion Air flight in Indonesia shortly after takeoff, all complaining that the aircraft suddenly pitched downward, according to documents reviewed by AFP on a flight safety database.
The incidents seem to involve the flight stabilisation system designed to prevent the aircraft from stalling, the “MCAS,” which was implicated in the fatal accident in the Lion Air crash that killed 189 people shortly after takeoff.
One pilot logged an incident in November 2018, just weeks after the Lion Air crash, saying the plane “pitched nose down” two to three seconds after engaging the autopilot following takeoff, according to the report on the Aviation Safety Reporting System, maintained by NASA.
“The captain immediately disconnected the autopilot and pitched into a climb,” the report said. “The rest of the flight was uneventful.”
The report said the flight crew reviewed the incident “at length … but can’t think of any reason the aircraft would pitch nose-down so aggressively.”
Another pilot on a flight in November said the crew discussed the concerns about the aircraft and “I mentioned I would engage the autopilot sooner than usual.” But again once engaged, there was a quick automated warning of “DONT SINK DONT SINK!”
“I immediately disconnected the AP (autopilot) … and resumed climb,” the officer said. But after review, “frankly neither of us could find an inappropriate set up error.”
“With the concerns with the MAX 8 nose-down stuff, we both thought it appropriate to bring it to your attention.”
The Lion Air accident had focused attention on Angle of Attack (AOA) sensors connected to the Aircraft Stabilization System (MCAS).
A malfunction of these tools may erroneously correct the path by pitching the aircraft down due to a mistaken assessment that the aircraft is in stall.
The Ethiopian Airlines disaster took place shortly after takeoff and the aircraft experienced irregular climbs and descents just after taking off.
“We’re going to decline to comment on specific ASRS reports,” an FAA spokeswoman told AFP.
“We are not aware of any verified reports of MCAS issues in the US.”
The ASRS is a voluntary system of reports that allows research to “lessen the likelihood of aviation accidents.”
CANADA BANS BOEING MAX 8s
After the latest accident on Sunday of the 737 MAX 8 from Ethiopian Airlines, shortly after takeoff, killing 157, numerous airlines and governments around the world grounded the aircraft or banned it from their skies, including Australia and Europe.
Canada followed suit on Wednesday (local time), with Transport Minister Marc Garneau telling a press conference, “As a result of new data that we received this morning, and had the chance to analyse, and on the advice of my experts and as a precautionary measure, I issued a safety notice.”
Eighteen of the Ethiopian crash victims were Canadian.
“This safety notice restricts commercial passenger flights from any operator of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 or MAX 9 variant aircraft, whether domestic or foreign, from arriving, departing or overflying Canadian air space. This safety notice is effective immediately and will remain in place until further notice.”
Garneau said he made his decision after reviewing “validated satellite tracking data suggesting a possible, although unproven, similarity in the flight profile of the Lion Air aircraft.” “I caution that it is new information that is not conclusive and we must await further evidence, hopefully from the voice and data recorders,” he added
“There is going to be some disruptions,” Garneau said. “But caution has to dominate.”
Canada has the world’s third largest fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 8 jetliners, 41 planes operated by three Canadian carriers.
His announcement comes after Australia, China, India, all European countries and others banned the medium-haul workhorse jet from their airspace in response to the Ethiopian Airlines crash.
“THERE WERE NO BODIES”
The cause of the tragedy in Ethiopia has not been determined, although the black boxes with critical data and recordings of the pilot were retrieved Monday and have been sent to Germany to be analysed, an Ethiopian Airlines spokesman said.
The spokesman also said no bodies will be recovered from the site where Flight 302 crashed, because only fragmented remains survived the impact.
“There were no bodies,” he told Reuters.
Sunday’s still unexplained crash, just after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killed everyone on board.
The dead came from 35 countries.
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