Max And Its Maximum Boycott

Two accidents of the Boeing 737 Max have raised a number of questions: the first and foremost being the speed with which the US planemaker rushed to ensure the commercial debut of the plane. Did the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cut corners to complete its certifications process? A close look at the goings-on in the B737 Max story.

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On October 29, 2018, when Lion Air Flight 610 – a scheduled domestic flight from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang – crashed into the Java Sea 12 minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 passengers and crew almost unanimously everyone pointed at the notoriously poor record of Indonesian aviation and believed it was another one of those tragedies that was entirely manmade. The aircraft in question was the Boeing 737 Max delivered to the airline on August 13, 2018, a mere two-and-a-half months before it plunged into the Java Sea.

As investigations began into the crash, there was really no indication that decrepit infrastructure or poor safety standards on the ground caused the accident. However, because of Indonesia’s terrible air safety record, everyone gave Boeing a clean chit and pointed fingers at Lion Air and the Commander of the flight – 31-year-old Indian Bhavya Suneja, who had been with Lion for over seven years and had over 6000 hours of flying behind him. It had been a spotless career till that fateful moment.

Relations between Lion Air and Boeing rapidly deteriorated after the US manufacturer obliquely seemed to suggest that maintenance issues and pilot error as the key reasons for the loss of flight JT610. Boeing focused on potential issues overlooked by maintenance crews and suggested pilots did not follow a checklist on the 737 Max 8 jet’s final flight. Boeing’s statement soon after Indonesian authorities’ preliminary findings were released suggested that the 737 disaster was caused because a computerised system took control following a sensor malfunction and the pilots could not handle it.