Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has publicly acknowledged for the first time that its anti-stall system on its 737 MAX aircraft played a role in two fatal crashes.
Its CEO made the admission shortly after a preliminary report was released by investigators probing the cause of last month’s Ethiopian Airlines’ crash.
"It’s apparent that in both flights the MCAS system activated in response to erroneous angle of attack information," Muilenburg said in a video posted on Twitter. "It’s our responsibility to eliminate this risk. We own it and we know how to do it.
"We at Boeing are sorry for the lives lost and are relentlessly focused on safety to ensure tragedies like this never happen again."
Boeing recently completed a software fix for the problem, although that was sent back for further tweaking and could be several more weeks before it is ready to be approved by the US air safety authority, the FAA.
FAA inspectors were onboard a certification flight to test the new software, in mid-March, a Boeing official said.
"We’re taking a comprehensive, disciplined approach, and taking the time, to get the software update right," Muilenburg said.
The ‘cosy’ relationship between Boeing and the FAA has been called in question since the Ethiopian Airlines’ crash, which followed the fatal crash of a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX in 2018. Of particular concern to US lawmakers has been the ‘self-certification’ process where Boeing workers handle much of the work that goes into approving a new aircraft model.
Former FAA chief of staff Michael Goldfarb reckons the software fix and subsequent approval could take months, with the FAA taking no chances.
"This will be treated differently from the way business is done. This will be micromanaged from (transportation) secretary Elaine Chao down," he told US broadcaster CNN.
From mid-April, Boeing will reduce output from 52 aircraft to 42 per month to focus resources on further addressing software fixes.
