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NEWS & LIFE

NCAA lifts ban on Boeing 737 Max Aircraft

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has announced the lifting of ban on Boeing 737 Max Aircraft flying into the Nigerian airspace, following the two accidents involving the aircraft model in recent past.

The Director-General (D-G) of NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, stated this in a statement he signed on Sunday in Lagos and made available to news men.

Nuhu noted that the approval had become effective since Feb. 12, adding that the aircraft can now fly into the country’s airspace.

He explained that the NCAA banned the aircraft model because of the two accidents they recorded in the past.

They involved Lion Air Flight 610, an Indonesian flight, which crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff and the Ethiopian Airlines flight 320, which crashed six minutes after takeoff some months back.

The Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, pronounced then the ban on the operations of the Boeing 737 Max Aircraft model in the Nigerian airspace.

The D-G said that on Nov. 18, 2020, NCAA had received a Continued Airworthiness Notification to the International Community (CANIC) CAN-2020-24.

He said that it advised it of the United States Federal Aviation Administrations (FAAs) ongoing continued operational safety activities related to returning Boeing Model 737-8 and 737-9 (737 MAX) aircraft service.

“This, however, made the FAA issue a final rule/Airworthiness Directive (AD) that mandated the following actions for Boeing 737 Max aircraft which include:

“Install new flight control computer software and new 737 Max display system software; Incorporate certain Airplane Flight Manual flight crew operating procedures., modify horizontal stabiliser trim wire routing installations; conduct an angle of attack sensor system test; and conduct an operation readiness flight,” he said.

Nuhu said that it recognised that a Joint Authority Technical Review (JATR) carried out a joint review of the Boeing 737 Max planes safety system alongside FAA and NASA.

He said that the FAA had released documents on Boeing 737 Flight Standardization Board Report, revision 17, identifying special pilot training for the 737 Max planes and Safety Alert for operators.

He said: “NCAA recognises the joint review of the Boeing 737 Max Safety System and came up with the following actions required of all foreign and domestic operators:

“All operators are required to work with the Boeing Company and NCAA for the Aircraft Type Certificate Acceptance Programme to have the aircraft registered in Nigeria and issued with a Standard Certificate of Airworthiness.

“All foreign air operators that intend to operate the Boeing 737 Max aircraft into Nigeria must submit evidence of compliance with the FAA AD 2020-24-02,” he said.

Nuhu noted that NCAA would continue to ensure strict compliance with safety regulations as violation[s] would be viewed seriously.

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INTERNATIONAL

Boeing, FAA failures to blame for 737 MAX crashes: U.S. House report

Two Boeing 737 MAX crashes that killed all 346 passengers and crew aboard were the “horrific culmination” of failures by the planemaker and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a U.S. House panel concluded after an 18-month investigation.

The crashes “were not the result of a singular failure, technical mistake, or mismanaged event,” the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Democratic majority said in its highly critical report released on Wednesday.

“They were the horrific culmination of a series of faulty technical assumptions by Boeing’s engineers, a lack of transparency on the part of Boeing’s management, and grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA.”

The 737 MAX was grounded in March 2019 after the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 near Addis Ababa which killed all 157 aboard.

In October 2018, a Lion Air 737 MAX had crashed in Indonesia killing all 189 on board.

“Boeing failed in its design and development of the MAX, and the FAA failed in its oversight of Boeing and its certification of the aircraft,” the report said, detailing a series of problems in the plane’s design and the FAA’s approval of it.

Boeing said it “learned many hard lessons as a company from the accidents … and from the mistakes we have made”.

It said it had cooperated fully with the House committee and that revised design work on the 737 MAX had received intensive internal and external review involving more than 375,000 engineering and testing hours and 1,300 test flights.

The FAA said in a statement it would work with lawmakers “to implement improvements identified in its report.”

It added it was “focused on advancing overall aviation safety by improving our organisation, processes, and culture.”

The report said Boeing made “faulty design and performance assumptions” especially regarding a key safety system, called MCAS, which was linked to both the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes.

MCAS, which was designed to help counter a tendency of the MAX to pitch up, could be activated after data from only a single sensor.

The FAA is requiring new safeguards to MCAS, including requiring it receive data from two sensors, before it allows the 737 MAX to return to service.

The report criticised Boeing for withholding “crucial information from the FAA, its customers, and 737 MAX pilots” including “concealing the very existence of MCASfrom 737 MAX pilots.”

The FAA “failed to ensure the safety of the traveling public”, the report said.

Lawmakers have proposed numerous reforms to restructure how the FAA oversees aircraft certification.

A Senate committee will take up a reform bill Wednesday.

Lawmakers suggested Boeing was motivated to cut costs and move quickly to get the 737 MAX to market.

“This is a tragedy that never should have happened,” House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio told reporters.

“We’re going to take steps in our legislation to see that it never happens again as we reform the system.”

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INTERNATIONAL

Boeing 737 MAX certification flight tests to begin on Monday – Sources

Pilots and test crew members from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing Co (BA.N) are slated to begin a three-day certification test campaign for the 737 MAX on Monday, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The test is a pivotal moment in Boeing’s worst-ever corporate crisis, long since compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic that has slashed air travel and jet demand.

The grounding of the fast-selling 737 MAX in March 2019 after crashes killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia triggered lawsuits, investigations by Congress and the Department of Justice and cut off a key source of Boeing’s cash.

After a preflight briefing over several hours, the crew will board a 737 MAX 7 outfitted with test equipment at Boeing Field near Seattle, one of the people said.

The crew will run methodically scripted mid-air scenarios such as steep-banking turns, progressing to more extreme maneuvers on a route primarily over Washington state.

The plan over at least three days could include touch-and-go landings at the eastern Washington airport in Moses Lake, and a path over the Pacific Ocean coastline, adjusting the flight plan and timing as needed for weather and other factors, one of the people said.

Pilots will also intentionally trigger the reprogrammed stall-prevention software known as MCAS faulted in both crashes, and aerodynamic stall conditions, the people said.

Boeing and the FAA declined to comment.

The rigours of the test campaign go beyond previous Boeing test flights, completed in a matter of hours on a single day, industry sources say.

The tests are meant to ensure new protections Boeing added to MCAS are robust enough to prevent the scenario pilots encountered before both crashes, when they were unable to counteract MCAS and grappled with “stick shaker” column vibrations and other warnings, one of the people said.

Boeing’s preparation has included hundreds of hours inside a 737 MAX flight simulator at its Longacres facility in Renton, Washington, and hundreds of hours in the air on the same 737 MAX 7 test airplane without FAA officials on board.

At least one of those practice flights included the same testing parameters expected on Monday, one of the people said.

After the flights, FAA officials in Washington and the Seattle-area will analyse reams of digital and paperwork flight test data to assess the jet’s airworthiness.

Likely weeks later, after the data is analysed and training protocols are firmed up, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson, a former F-15 fighter pilot who has promised the 737 MAX will not be approved until he has personally signed off on it, will board the same plane to make his assessments, two of the people said.

If all goes well, the FAA would then need to approve new pilot training procedures, among other reviews, and would not likely approve the plane’s ungrounding until September, the people said.

That means the jet is on a path to resume U.S. service before year-end, though the process has been plagued by delays for more than a year.

“Based on how many problems have been uncovered, I would be stunned if the flight tests are ‘one and done,’” said another person with knowledge of the flight plans.

“(The FAA will) make sure they find enough stuff wrong to demonstrate they are putting this jet through its paces.

“The last thing the FAA or Boeing wants is for the Administrator to do his own flight and say ‘it’s not ready.’ Boeing wants Dickson’s flight to be a coronation.”

Regulators in Europe and Canada, while working closely with the FAA, will also conduct their own assessments and have pinpointed concerns that go beyond the FAA.

They may require additional changes after the 737 MAX is cleared to return to service.

“This is new territory,” said one industry source with knowledge of prior Boeing tests.

“There’s a lot more play between regulators, and certainly a lot more pressure and public attention.”

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INTERNATIONAL

Panama’s Copa Airlines planning to retire Boeing 737-700 fleet

Panama’s Copa Airlines said on Thursday that it is planning to retire early its fleet of 14 older Boeing 737-700 NG planes, the latest carrier to do away with planes due to the coronavirus crisis.

Copa said it will focus on a leaner fleet composed mainly of its Boeing 737-800 NG planes instead.

Copa also has some new Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes.

But those have been grounded worldwide since last year, after two deadly crashes.

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BUSINESS

American Airlines cancels Boeing 737 MAX flights until Jan. 16

American Airlines Group Inc said on Wednesday it was extending cancellation of Boeing 737 MAX flights to Jan. 15 as regulators continue to extensively review proposed software changes to the grounded plane.

The largest U.S. airline, which had previously cancelled about 140 flights a day through Dec. 3, said Wednesday it expected to gradually resume MAX flights starting on Jan. 16.

American said it believed the software updates would lead to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) “re-certification of the aircraft later this year and resumption of commercial service in January 2020.”

The FAA said Wednesday it is “is following a thorough process, not a prescribed timeline for returning the Boeing 737 Max to passenger service.

The FAA will lift the aircraft’s prohibition order when it is deemed safe to do so.”

The fast-selling 737 MAX has been grounded worldwide since mid-March, while Boeing updates flight control software at the centre of two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that together killed 346 people within a span of five months.

Among other U.S. airlines that operate the MAX, Southwest Airlines Co has cancelled flights through Jan. 5 and United Airlines Holdings Inc until Dec. 19.

An ongoing regulatory safety review means a key 737 MAX certification test flight is unlikely before November, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Boeing has repeatedly said it hopes to resume flights in the fourth quarter which began on Oct. 1.

Boeing 737 max 8

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson told Reuters in September the agency would need about a month following the yet-to-be scheduled certification test flight before the planes could return to service.

Boeing plans to revise the 737 MAX software to take input from both of its angle-of-attack sensors in the anti-stall system linked to the two deadly crashes and has added additional safeguards.

Boeing is also addressing a flaw discovered in the software architecture of the 737 MAX flight-control system that involves using and receiving input from the plane’s two flight control computers rather than one.

Meanwhile, airlines that had purchased the fuel-efficient MAX have cancelled thousands of monthly flights as they scramble to meet demand with slimmer fleets, eating in to profit and hurting some growth plans.

On Monday, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association sued Boeing alleging that the plane-maker “deliberately misled” the airline and pilots about its 737 MAX aircraft.

The grounding of the 737 MAX has wiped out more than 30,000 Southwest Airlines flights, causing over 100 million dollars in lost wages for pilots, the union said. Boeing said the suit is “meritless.”

Fort Worth, Texas-based American, with 24 MAX jets at the time of the grounding and dozens more on order, said it expects to resume about 20 MAX flights a day in mid-January and plans to slowly return the MAX into commercial service throughout January and into February.

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INTERNATIONAL

Ethiopian Airlines Boeing makes emergency landing after engine glitch

An Ethiopian Airline Boeing on Wednesday made an emergency landing at Senegal’s Diass airport shortly after take-off due to technical problems.

The Boeing 767-300 was scheduled to fly from Diass to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, via Bamako in Mali on Tuesday, Ethiopian Airlines said in a statement.

According to information provided by the German-based Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre (JACDEC), one of the plane’s two engines had encountered a problem and a fire had broken out.

JACDEC said about 10 minutes after take-off, the plane landed safely back at Diass airport, where the fire was quickly extinguished.

Boeing 737 max 8 [source: www.flyingmag.com]

Ethiopian Airlines confirmed a similar incident in flight ET 908 on Tuesday, without going into the circumstances of the incident.

In March, an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed in Ethiopia shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board.

This followed an earlier crash in Indonesia in October that also killed 189 people.

As a result, the 737 MAX has been grounded worldwide.

Categories
BUSINESS

Boeing to spend $50m to support 737 MAX crash victim families

Boeing Co (BA.N) on Wednesday said it would dedicate half of a $100 million fund it created to address two deadly crashes of its 737 MAX planes to financial relief for the families of those killed.

Boeing Chief Executive, Dennis Muilenburg, said the compensation expert, Ken Feinberg, is hired to oversee the distribution.

The announcement of Feinberg’s hiring came minutes before the start of a U.S. House of Representatives hearing that will feature testimony from a father, who lost three children, his wife and mother-in-law in a 737 MAX Ethiopian Air crash in March.

Feinberg said on Wednesday his team would “start immediately drafting a claims protocol for those eligible’’ with the first meeting with Boeing later this week in Washington.

Boeing said on July 3, it would give $100 million over multiple years to local governments and non-profit organisations to help families and communities affected by the crashes.

Boeing reiterated on Wednesday that the money distributed, through the fund, would be independent of the outcome of any lawsuits.

The company is facing a slew of litigation from the families of victims of both crashes.

“Through our partnership with Feinberg and Biros, we hope affected families receive needed assistance as quickly and efficiently as possible,’’ Muilenburg said in a statement, referring to Camille Biros, a lawyer also hired to design and administer the funds.

Boeing’s initial announcement of the $100 million was met with anger by some victims’ families, who described the offer as a publicity stunt.

It remains unclear, who will qualify for the aid and when the funds will be distributed.