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Lion Air and Mainland carriers among beneficiaries of 737 MAX return to flying; regulators respond cautiously to FAA directive
November 20th 2020
Regulators around the world have responded with caution to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) order this week that cleared the 737 MAX to fly. Read More »
The rescinding of the order grounding the 737 MAX followed an investigation into Lion Air flight 610 in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 in March 2019 that implicated anti-stall software on the 737 MAX, known as the Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), in both tragedies.
Boeing developed software improvements and changed pilot training procedures in response to the accidents that took the lives of 346 crew and passengers. The FAA has accepted the changes to the type after a 20-month evaluation FAA administrator, Steve Dickson, said was a "methodical and deliberate safety process".
"The path that led us to this point was long and gruelling, but we said from the start we would take the time necessary to get this right," Dickson said in a video posted on the FAA's YouTube channel. “I am 100% comfortable with my family flying on it," he said.
Despite this week's ungrounding, the 737 MAX could not take flight immediately because the FAA has published an airworthiness directive that specified design changes Boeing had to make before the aircraft type could return to service. The regulator also would have to approve 737 MAX pilot training program revisions for each U.S. airline operating the aircraft.
Airlines that have parked the 737 MAX also have to undertake the required maintenance to prepare them for a return to the skies.
Some of the largest 737 MAX Asia-Pacific airline customers include Lion Air Group with 13 737 MAXs grounded – 10 in Indonesia and three at Thai Lion – and orders for another 237, the Boeing website reports.
SIA group’s SilkAir operated six 737 MAX 8s before the global grounding and has 31 of the type on order.
Collectively, China's “Big Three” airlines had 42 737 MAX grounded: Air China (15), China Eastern Airlines (3) and China Southern Airlines (24). Other Mainland carriers with sizeable 737 MAX fleets include Shanghai Airlines (12), Hainan Airlines (11) and Xiamen Airlines (10).
Fiji Airways has been without two 737 MAX 8s.
India's SpiceJet had 13 737 MAXs in its fleet at the time of the global grounding. In its latest quarterly results, the LCC said it was targeting a return to service of type by the fourth quarter of its 2021 financial year, which ends on March 31.
India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation said this week it would study the FAA order and conduct its own review before any decision to allow the aircraft to return to service in the country.
"We will take the appropriate call in the matter after an examination," a DGCA official told local media.
Transport Canada said its safety experts were continuing their "independent validation process to determine whether to approve the proposed changes to the aircraft".
"We expect this process to conclude very soon," Canada transport minister, Marc Garneau, said in a statement.
"However, there will be differences between what the FAA has approved today and what Canada will require for its operators. These differences will include additional procedures on the flight deck and pre-flight as well as differences in training."
Similarly, Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) said it would conduct its own independent assessment to ensure all necessary requirements would be met for the safe return of the aircraft to flying in Brazil.
The FAA had "worked very closely with our foreign counterparts on every aspect of the return to service", Dickson said.
Separately, a U.S. House of Representatives transportation and infrastructure committee report published this week said “the crashes were not the result of a singular failure, technical mistake or mismanaged event".
"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," it said.
