The Story of the 737 MAX

The infamous 737 MAX. The plane that was known for crashing. This article will explain the whole story of the 737 MAX and how it crashed twice in the first 1/2 a year of its release.

The 737 MAX was created as competition to the A320 Neo series. The A320 Neo was gaining popularity and Boeing announced the 737 in 2011. This airplane was meant to take the place of the A320 Neo and fit right in to all airlines fleet.

After the 737 MAX was launched and ready to order, the first order was delivered. Sales had spiked up for the 737 MAX. The 737 MAX came in 2 variants at that time. the 737 MAX 8 and the 737 MAX 9. The 737 MAX 8 was the shorter variant of the MAX family.

Now for a comparison of the A320 Neo to the 737 MAX. The 737 MAX sold more aircraft, but the A320 Neo has more seats than the 737 MAX 9. The MAX has more range and is more fuel efficient. The last point to emphasize on is the size. While the 737 is bigger, it seats less passengers. This is because of the space needed for the flight systems.

Everything seemed like it was going well for Boeing, but then the incident of Lion Air flight 610 happened. The aircraft involved in the accident was a 737 MAX 8. This was known as the most terrible tragedy in the time. Shortly after takeoff from Jakarta Intl, the aircraft had a sharp nose down angle, causing the plane to dive and crash into the ocean. This is all according to the Flight Data Recorder, better know as the “Black Box.”

Everyone was in shock, especially the ACI (Air Crash Investigation) team. One of the ACI employees said this”How could the new plane crash like this?” Then 5 months after that crash, The crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 became a reality. The aircraft in question was again, a 737 MAX 8. Once again, shortly after takeoff from Bole Intl, the aircraft had a sharp nose down angle, causing the plane to dive. This is still all according to the “Black Box.”

The FAA grounded all 737 MAX aircraft until Boeing resolved the issue. Boeing worked hard on fixing these issues. The FAA were also looking into the specs of the 737 and they found that there was a system that was not mentioned. It was called MCAS. They hid it from everyone so that airlines don’t have to pay for extra pilot training. This would put the 737 MAX ahed of the A320 Neo.

MCAS stood for “Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System.” The 737 MAX has more powerful engines than it really needs, so as a pilot, if you add power into the engines, it would have a tendency to pitch up quite steep.

After the FAA found out, Boeing was charged 2.5 Billion dollars. The FAA also mandated their approved training for dealing with a haywire MCAS system. After nearly a year of worldwide grounding, the FAA ungrounded the aircraft.

The major improvement that Boeing made was that MCAS will not override the pilot’s ability to fly. The system now relies on 2 Angle of Attack sensors instead of 1. If there is disagreement between the sensors, MCAS will not activate.

The first airline to return the updated aircraft to public service was Lion air. Most airlines gave people the chance to get booked on a different flight operated by a different aircraft. Many people at first chose this option until the aircraft was proven safe.

That is the story of the 737 MAX. The grounding was one of the longest plane groundings ever. Boeing even had to ground planes in the employee parking. This long story marks an aviation record.