Boeing’s Max 737 returns to Chinese skies

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The beleaguered Boeing 737 Max will resume services in China next year after being certified as “airworthy” by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The paperwork sets the stage for the accident-prone jet to return to China’s airline schedules following months of negotiations between Beijing and Boeing.

The decision clears the way for 100s of the best-selling US-manufactured planes to be delivered to China, removing a major impediment for Boeing. Shares of Boeing rocketed after the announcement.

Despite the simmering trade tensions between the US and China, China remains one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world and an essential customer for Boeing planes.

China was the last of the world’s major travel markets to re-approve the 737 Max for flying after being grounded globally in March 2019 following two fatal crashes that together claimed 346 lives – one in Indonesia and one in Ethiopia. After the first crash Boeing laid the blame on the airline and pilots without revealing vital information about a software called MCAS, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, that was necessary to correct unintended and dangerous flight characteristics of the new model 737.

The development of the 737 Max series, the fourth generation of the 737, originally developed in the 1960s and first flown in April 1967, was a knee-jerk reaction to the popularity of a newly announced Airbus 320 NEO program (New Engine Option). American Airlines, a long-term Boeing customer, goaded Boeing with threats that they’d put in an order for the European Airbus alternative unless they could bring a competitor to market in quick time.

So, rather than developing an all new short-haul, single aisle alternative, Boeing gave the ageing 737 model a quick makeover with new, larger, fuel-efficient engines. But the 737, originally popular because of its low ground clearance, was now unable to fit the newer turbo fan engines under its wings so had to design the attachments further forward on the wing, putting the design balance slightly out of kilter with its centre of propulsion moving forward, and the weight of the engines, also forward, altering the flying balances of the new aircraft.

Without some sort of software intervention, the 737 Max would have a nose-up attitude when at high thrust levels. So the software was designed to detect nose up attitudes from the “Angle of Attack” meter and then correct it by automatically pushing the nose of the aircraft back down. Basically, the new 737 model was unfit to fly without the electronic intervention.

But the software, along with faulty Angle of Attack meters, became a fatal combination for the Lion Air and Ethiopian Air 737 Max flights when the pilots were unaware of the software and how to disengage it. The two flights had similar battles between the MCAS software and the pilots where the software eventually won, plunging the planes into the ground.

189 people pdied when a Lion Air flight crashed in Indonesia on October 29, 2018, and another 157 died in the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight on March 10, 2019. Between the two incidents Boeing denied it was an error on their part and tried to push the blame onto the pilots of the Lion Air flight.

Boeing continued to deny culpability, even after the second crash. Their actions were supported by the US Civil Aviation Authority, eventually becoming the last major country to ground the new 737 Max models until a proper investigation could find the faults. Investigators were quickly able to find the main cause of both tragedies was MCAS. Or, more specifically, the lack of Boeing pilot training about the software and how to resolve problems associated with it.

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