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https://scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3001768/boeing-737-max-will-be-grounded-us-least-weeks United States & Canada
Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 9 planes will be grounded in US for ‘weeks’ during design fix, lawmakers say after FAA briefing
- A software upgrade will need to be tested and installed in all 737 MAX planes before they can fly again, the FAA says
- The fix relates to an automated control system called MCAS, that may be linked to crashes of Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air planes
US lawmakers said after a briefing with the acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday that Boeing’s 737 MAX 8 and 9 planes will remain grounded in the US for “weeks” at a minimum, until a software upgrade could be tested and installed in all of the planes.
FAA Administrator Dan Elwell told reporters on Wednesday the software update will be ready within a couple of months after regulators around the world grounded the plane following a second fatal crash in the 737 MAX 8 since October.
The FAA said Monday it planned to require the upgrade it termed “design changes” by April. An FAA spokesman confirmed Thursday that the FAA will not un-ground the aeroplanes until the software patch is approved and installed.
The plane has also been grounded worldwide by officials and airlines.
Boeing and the FAA did not immediately comment.
Representative Rick Larsen said after the briefing the software upgrade would take a few weeks to complete and installing on all aircraft would take “at least through April.” He said additional training would also have to take place.
Representative Peter DeFazio, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the software upgrade will result in the aeroplanes behaving more like older versions of the 737.
An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 is parked in a gate at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Wednesday. Photo: EPA
The upgrade will revise an automated protection system called the Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System or MCAS, which come under scrutiny in October’s fatal Lion Air crash in Indonesia.
“After the pilot has tried to correct, the MCAS is going to not keep repeating itself, which is what it does now. It keep triggering automatically and the pilot has to do it again,” DeFazio said, unless it is manually disengaged by the pilot.
“It will essentially shut itself off.”
The upgrade will address if there is a disagreement between censors, DeFazio said.
Lawmakers noted that there have been no confirmed incidents in 50,000 North America flights with the 737 MAX 8 and questioned if training by carriers abroad was an issue.