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How Boeing 737 MAX's flawed flight control system led to 2 crashes that killed 346

Samya Stumoarrived at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the morning of March 10, 2019, after a long flight from Washington, D.C.

The 24-year-old, who had been raised on a Massachusetts farm, was on her first overseas assignment for the global health care group, Thinkwell. After a two-hour layover, Stumo was scheduled to move on to Nairobi, Kenya, on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.

Along with her were 148 other passengers from 35 different countries. Many were on missions of goodwill. Some were heading to Nairobi for a United Nations conference, according to Ethiopian journalist Hadra Ahmed. Others, she said, "were going to volunteer and do good for the world."

Just six minutes after takeoff,ETH302 dove at full speed(Links to an external site.)into a field 30 miles away from Bole International, near the town of Bishoftu. Everyone on board, including Stumo, was dead.

"On the BBC at 3:00 in the morning, it said that a plane, Ethiopian Airlines taking off from Addis Ababa, had crashed," saidStumo's mother Nadia Milleron(Links to an external site.). "I remember I couldn't breathe."

Milleron said some of her daughter's personal belongings were recovered and returned to the family, including Stumo's work journal, passport and articles of clothing.

"It all smells of jet fuel. They fill the room with the smell," Milleron said. "To me, it's the smell of death."

The plane that crashed on that clear, sunny morning in Ethiopia was a Boeing 737 MAX 8, a new model that had become the fastest-selling plane in Boeing's history. The 737 MAX was a revamped version of Boeing's highly popular 737 aircraft, with added power and fuel-efficient engines.

Boeing touted the MAX as being so similar to the previous model of the 737 that it said pilots wouldn't be required to undergo any training for it in a flight simulator -- a costly expense for airlines. Instead, Boeing said pilots could get up to speed on the new model by reviewing a 56-minute online course.

"It went through a robotic voice describing what the MAX is about," said Capt. Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines pilot and spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association. "You can sit at Starbucks or sit at home, and it would ask you a couple of questions to affirm the learning."

The Lion Air disaster

Indonesia-based budget airline Lion Air was one of Boeing's biggest buyers, ordering over 200 Boeing 737 MAX 8s at a cost of $22 billion. And after its first flight in May 2017, the 737 MAX 8 went 17 months without incident. Then, on Oct. 28, 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 from Bali to Jakarta experienced an in-flight emergency as the plane suddenly began to nosedive after take-off.

"All of us were screaming like we are in a roller coaster," said Rakhmat Robbi, a passenger on the flight. "To be honest, I was thinking it's almost like my last flight and this is my last day."

The aircraft nosedived four times as the pilots struggled to regain control, according to Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC). A third pilot who just happened to be in the cockpit was able to help the two pilots resolve the situation and the plane landed safely in Jakarta. However, according to the NTSC, the crew left incomplete notes about the details of the emergency.

"The pilot reported that he had a problem with the speed and altitude indicated on the captain's side," said Capt. Nurcahyo Utomo, senior safety investigator of the NTSC.

Nurcahyo said the captain failed to mention the plane's trim system had suddenly activated, causing it to repeatedly nose dive.

"The pilots were able to control it," said aviation attorney Steven Marks. "They knew they had a problem. But they didn't understand exactly what the nature of the problem was."

Early the next morning, on Oct. 29, 2018, the same plane departed from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang, Indonesia. Just 13 minutes after takeoff, Lion Air Flight 610 plummeted into the Java Sea.

Authorities launched a search and rescue mission immediately, but all 189 people on board died.

David Moreno, 12, whose mother Fiona Ayu Zen was on the flight, said "I prayed so she would be found... I prayed for her safety, but she didn't make it."

The 737 MAX's flawed flight control software

The flight data recorder from Lion Air 610 revealed that the plane had gone out of control -- it had moved up and down over 24 times before it finally dove into the sea at full speed.

"I never knew ... any case of the aircraft that fly down and up and up and down like this," Nurcahyo said. "I knew that the pilot was fighting with the plane."

Nurcahyo said the NTSC asked Boeing about the kind of system on the 737 MAX that could have caused it to behave in such a manner. He said investigators were surprised to learn that Boeing had installed a flight control software program that could force the plane into a dive without the pilots' knowledge.

The software, called Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), was added to compensate for the larger, more powerful engines that had been added onto the existing 737 airframes, which changed the in-air flight characteristics of the aircraft.

"The aircraft starts to want to pitch up all by itself," said Peter Lemme, a former Boeing engineer, who didn't work on the MAX design, and now serves as chief consultant for Seamless Air Alliance. "The idea was to provide something that would offset that pitching moment, or causing the nose to come back up."

When the aircraft's computer sensed that the plane was in danger of a stall, MCAS worked by triggering the horizontal stabilizer located on the aircraft's tail to push the nose back down.

MCAS was accidentally triggered on both Lion Air flights because a defective angle of attack (AOA) sensor had transmitted incorrect information about the position of the plane's nose. Although there are two AOA sensors on the 737 MAX, MCAS was only connected to one of them.

"It's a lack of redundancy that appears to me to be unacceptable in airplane design," said aviation journalist Christine Negroni, author of the book "The Crash Detectives."

Boeing responds

In the wake of the Lion Air tragedy, then Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg reassured the flying public about the safety of the 737 MAX 8.

"The bottom line here is the 737 MAX is safe and safety is a core value for us at Boeing," Muilenburg said in a Nov. 13, 2018, appearance on Fox Business.

Boeing followed up by issuing a bulletin to airlines instructing pilots to cut off power to the horizontal stabilizer in the event of an uncommanded nose-down emergency, which would also prevent MCAS from activating.

Boeing also noted in a statement that the pilots on the Lion Air flight from Bali to Jakarta were able to successfully land because they had correctly followed this procedure. The pilots on the fatal Lion Air flight failed to take this step.

In a private meeting with the pilots' union of American Airlines that was secretly recorded by the union's president, Boeing said it had decided not to reveal the existence of MCAS in the 737 MAX flight manual on the grounds that it didn't want to inundate pilots with unnecessary information.

"That enraged us," Capt. Tajer said. "Boeing always gives you the information, they don't parcel it out."

QUESTION:

When the second Boeing 737 Max crash occurred the 737 Max was grounded. Originally Boeing and Southwest thought the problem could be fixed quickly and expeditiously with a software update and pilot training.

As time passed, the FAA and other governing bodies around the world made it increasingly difficult for Boeing to re-certify and return the 737 Max to service. Instead of months, the grounding stretched to over a year with no end in sight.

Discuss the following 3 issues using economic theory and terminology.

1. At what point, does Southwest lay off workers but continue to fly a reduced schedule? What economic logic do they use to make their decision?
2. At what point, does Southwest cancel all schedule flights, both 737 and 737 Max, until the 737 Max returns to service? What economic logic do they use to make their decision?
3. At what point, does Southwest go out of business, either declaring bankruptcy or selling all their assets including their fleet of planes. What economic logic do they use to make their decision?