The Boeing 737 Max crashes and their causes

Capt Brian Johnson (Rtd), President of the Mill Point Rotary Club, drew on his extensive experience flying with the RAAF and Qantas in giving a very interesting presentation, on the causes of the failure of the Boeing 737 Max which resulted in crashes, with total loss of life in Indonesia and Ethiopia.  The problem was that modification made the plane tend to pitch too high after take-off and so software was added to force the nose down in those situation, but insufficient redundancy was put in the sensors, making the plane difficult to handle if the flight deck crew were not aware of the issue.

The failures were:

• Boeing – in a hurry and cut corners in the upgrading of the very successful Boeing 737 to the more powerful 737-Max

• The US regulator – underfunded and short-staffed and allowed too much self-regulation for Boeing, thereby missing key fatal flaws

• The Airlines – in a rush to get the new planes in the air, did not pay sufficient attention to reported problems and there was no updated manual.

• The pilots – as a result of lack of training and with no manual were confronted with problems they could not deal with.

• Pilot culture in some airlines – second officers who could have handled the issue in the air not willing to challenge their superiors.

The failures, which could have/should have been arrested at any of these stages resulted in 384 deaths and $20 bn in costs to Boeing – and legal disputes are on-going.

The Boeing 737 Max has now been reconfigured and is flying safely.