• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

Another Boeing 737-800 MAX crash...

Rami

Administrator
Staff member
Hey guys,

Another one went down in Ethiopia...based on preliminary information, it sounds eerily similar to the Lion Air crash. I'm starting to wonder about the safety of this aircraft after reading this: https://www.thedailybeast.com/before-fatal-lion-air-crash-boeings-new-jet-hit-problem-in-tests

https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-th...it-back-owing-to-the-huge-cost-considerations

It sounds like there were no survivors. My heart goes out to all those involved in the crash, as well as their families.
 
Yeah - and the airfield is about 7900 ft MSL to boot.

Reading the Boeing bulletin released about the extra stab trim logic in the max models, it sounds like an issue not really emphasized until airspeed or AoA issues cropped up.

I find it hard to believe these AoA sensors have problems. In all my years in the Navy I never had one problem and don't recall anyone else having one either.

It will be interesting to find out the real scoop.
 
Strange as Lion have a bad reputation for maintenance whereas Ethiopian is a very good airline despite their location.
Plenty of knee jerk reaction from the media 'experts' of course.
:173go1:
 
Witnesses saw smoke and “a strange sound” before the crash. Sounds like not the same as Lion Air.

Too much reaction to something nobody knows yet.
 
Fact is and remains that another crash happened with a 737 Max in a very short period of time. All the rest is guess work.

Boeing just have to provide clarity about the development of this bird and whether they found flaws in the soft- and hardware. A software update was to be distributed after the Lion Air crash, but never was.

And the bottom line is that 157 passengers died. And let's face it: big companies like Boeing don't always have the customer or user at heart. The shareholders on the other hand...

Priller
 
I heard the NTSB is assisting Ethiopian authorities, I won't point fingers until I hear the results of the investigation. I did hear, via the news media this morning that Boeing was planning to expedite the "software/hardware" update as early as today. I really don't think that a major aircraft manufacturer like Boeing intentionally cut corners on its 737 MAX Series. I think they DO have everyone's best interest in mind, be it pilots or passengers. Especially when they have aviation giant Airbus to compete with. Still, my thoughts and prayers for the families of those who lost their lives in the crash.

BB686:US-flag:
 
Reading here and there that the main problem may not be the aircraft or its software, but the fact crews are not much informed about what the MCAS do and how it works. This, plus they are not taught on how to bypass it manually in "unusual circumstances".

For those who don't know about it, the MCAS is a system which automatically adjust the pitch trim to compensate the difference of stability between the 737-NG family and the 737-MAX family, since they moved the bigger engines front- and upward. This system is fully automatic, but sometimes makes the flight quite unpredictable with high AoA.
 
Last edited:
What is sad is that the corrective action is to simply grab the mechanical trim wheel to stop it spinning (the motor will disconnect immediately), the MCAS will be suspended at the same time. This gives enough time to reach over and flip the two trim switches OFF before the MCAS will resume operation.
 
Back
Top