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Boeing 737 MAX: What’s Taking So Long?
(Note: companies that could be impacted by the content of this article are listed at the base of the story (desktop version). This article uses third-party references to provide a bullish, bearish and balanced point of view; sources listed in the “Balanced” section)
Boeing’s troubles began on October 29, 2018, when Lion Air Flight 610 experienced problems shortly after takeoff, struggled to ascend at a stable speed, and then crashed, killing all 189 passengers. Then on March 10th, while the investigation into the Lion Air crash was still underway, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 experienced disturbingly similar issues leading it to crash shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board. In both instances, the pilots were flying a brand-new Boeing 737 MAX.
The 737 MAX was the fastest-selling airplane in Boeing (BA) history with about 5,000 orders from more than 100 customers worldwide. The model has completed thousands of successful flights and was widely considered by industry experts to be a safe aircraft. Nevertheless, following the crash of Flight 302, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) moved to temporarily ground the entire global fleet of Boeing 737 MAX aircrafts.
Now, about a year after the first crash, half a year after its “temporary” grounding, and after thousands of canceled flights, the plane has yet to return to the skies. Originally, the company had hoped the aircraft model could return to service as soon as April. However, concerns regarding not only the plane itself, but also Boeing’s and the FAA’s approval processes has delayed the 737 MAX’s return to service. Currently, an international panel of air-safety regulators is finishing a report that is expected to criticize the FAA’s certification process. International regulators speculate that the FAA’s delegation of the assessment of certain flight-control features to Boeing and inadequate data sharing with foreign authorities during its certification likely contributed to the tragic events. Varying opinions on technical and procedural standards between international agencies has now spiraled into political and diplomatic clashes. The seemingly endless number of obstacles to the re-certification of the aircraft inspires the question, “Will the 737 MAX ever return to the sky?”