Lightning Strikes Boeing Once Too Often
Critical design flaws in passenger aircraft ought to be non-existent, so it’s alarming that regulators have discovered a second in the 737 Max.
It helps to be part of a duopoly.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/BloombergIf you’re in the business of selling passenger aircraft, design flaws that might cause your planes to crash ought to be non-existent.
That’s why the discovery of a second critical safety risk on Boeing Co.’s 737 Max is so alarming. Tests by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration found that flight computers could cause the plane to dive in a way that pilots struggled to correct in simulator tests, people familiar with the finding told Alan Levin and Julie Johnsson of Bloomberg News on Wednesday. The problem wasn’t connected to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, that’s been linked to 737 Max crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, but could produce similar effects, one of the people said.1