| Dette minner meg om Space Shuttle Challenger som eksploderte på grunn av en pakning. En person varslet om at det kunne være et svakt punkt på grunn av at den ble sprø etter å har vært utsatt for lave temperaturer en stund. Varsleren ble ikke hørt fordi det hastet med å få romfergen i lufta. (Red.) FAA asks Boeing why it hid test pilot's discovery of 'egregious' 737 Max issues  The Federal Aviation Administration is demanding answers from Boeing after receiving a 2016 electronic message exchange in which a test pilot talks of unknowingly having lied to regulators and discloses "egregious" problems with the flight control system that figured in two 737 Max crashes. FAA Administrator Steve Dickson sent a terse letter Friday to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg requesting to know why the messages had only been delivered the day before, not months ago when Boeing had uncovered them. "I expect your explanation immediately," he writes. The 737 Max, the latest version of the jetliner that has evolved since first being flown in the 1960s, has been grounded worldwide since an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed in March, killing 157 aboard. It followed another accident involving a 737 Max flown by Lion Air by five months, claiming 189 passengers and crew. In both crashes, blame has focused on the performance of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, which was software added to the jets to make them fly like previous versions of the 737. It was deemed needed because the Max had larger engines than previous 737s that were repositioned on the wing, making the jet perform differently in some circumstances. Pilots in both the Ethiopian and Lion Air jetliners wrestled with MCAS, which automatically switches on in certain situations, as it overrode their actions. MCAS kept pushing the nose of the planes down as they struggled to keep them aloft. In the November 2016, message exchange, 737 chief test pilot Mark Forkner - Boeing describes him as a "former employee" - writes that MCAS is "running rampant in the sim on me," a reference to a flight simulator in which it was being tested at the time. "I am levelling off at like 4000 feet, 230 knots and the plane is trimming itself like crazy. I'm like, WHAT?" he said. He quipped, "granted, I suck at flying, but even this was egregious." Forkner said he "basically lied to the regulators (unknowingly)" based on the simulator experience though the co-worker is quick to counter, "it wasn't a lie, no one told us that was the case." In a batch of emails that the FAA later sent, Forkner notes in a March 2016 missive to the FAA that mention of the MCAS system in flight crew operating manuals is unnecessary because MCAS is present in both of the plane's flight control computers, operates in a transparent way and was designed to kick in only in rare circumstances. Pilots have complained that the existence of the MCAS system was kept secret from them until after the Lion Air crash. The discovery could become a huge complication for Muilenburg, who is set to testify Oct. 30 before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for the first time about troubles with the 737 Max. The FAA, the House committee and other authorities are investigating how MCAS was developed and approved for the 737 Max. Boeing 737 Max fallout: Blasting Boeing, FAA, safety panel recommends changes in certification process In reaction to the disclosures, Boeing said it released the document to the House committee as part of its continued cooperation with its investigation as it strives to get the 737 Max back in service. The ranking member of the House committee, Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., said the messages raise "a lot of questions" about conditions at the time of the test, what engineers were doing as the test was conducted and what Boeing did with the information. Pilots union officials at two of the largest U.S. airline operators of the 737 Max, American and Southwest Airlines, reacted with dismay. "This more evidence that Boeing misled pilots, government regulators and other aviation experts about the safety of the 737 Max," said Jon Weaks, president of Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, in a statement. "It is clear that the company's negligence and fraud put the flying public at risk." And Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association for American, said "it's very serious if Boeing had someone within who is describing something egregious." He added, "We want to know under what conditions (MCAS was malfunctioning) so we can determine if something is new within the MCAS system." He also said the union is solidly behind the FAA's Dickson on the matter. "We count on the FAA as a safety-culture partner." |
Boeing 2016 internal messages suggest employees may have
misled FAA on 737 MAX - sources FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo shows Boeing 737 MAX aircraft at Boeing facilities at the Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co turned over instant messages from 2016 between two employees that suggest the airplane maker may have misled the Federal Aviation Administration about a key safety system on the grounded 737 MAX, sources briefed on the matter said. The FAA confirmed Friday that Boeing told it a day earlier about internal messages it had discovered "some months ago" that characterize "certain communications with the FAA during the original certification of the 737 MAX in 2016." The FAA said it found the messages "concerning" and "is reviewing this information to determine what action is appropriate." It prompted a letter from FAA Administrator Steve Dickson to Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg demanding an "immediate" explanation for the delay in turning over the documents. Sources told Reuters the Boeing internal messages raised questions about the performance of the so-called MCAS anti-stall system that has been tied to the two fatal crashes in five months. The messages are between the MAX's then-chief technical pilot and another Boeing pilot, the sources said, and raised questions about the MCAS's performance in the simulator. The pilot has since left Boeing. Boeing said in a statement the company "brought to the Committee's attention a document containing statements by a former Boeing employee." One of the messages said the Boeing pilot had "basically lied" to regulators but added in parenthesis it was "(unknowingly)." Boeing is revising the 737 MAX software to add more safeguards and require the MCAS system to receive input from two key sensors. The FAA reiterated that it is "following a thorough process, not a prescribed timeline, for returning the Boeing 737 MAX to passenger service. The agency will lift the grounding order only after we have determined the aircraft is safe." Earlier this week, Southwest Airlines Co delayed the return of the plane to its schedule until February. Separately, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee confirmed it will question Muilenburg at an Oct. 29 hearing, one day before a House of Representatives panel is scheduled to question him. Boeing shares fell 3.5% after the Reuters report, helping to drag down the Dow Jones industrial average to a session low. Boeing lead pilot warned about flight-control system tied to 737 Max crashes, then told regulators to delete it from manuals  KEY POINTS
FAA: Substance of Boeing documents is 'concerning' A Boeing pilot warned about problems with the flight-control program on the 737 Max that was implicated in two fatal crashes, said he "unknowingly" lied to regulators, and told the Federal Aviation Administration not to include the system in pilot manuals before regulators deemed the plane safe for the public in 2017, according to messages released Friday. The messages deepened the manufacturer's crisis over the bestselling jets, which have been grounded worldwide since March in the wake of the crashes, sending the stock to an eight-week low. The Boeing lead pilot complained in one of the messages that a flight-control system, known as MCAS, was difficult to control, according to the messages, which were obtained by NBC News. That system and pilots' ability to recover from its failure in flight are at the heart of investigations into the crashes. Investigators have implicated the system in both crashes - a Lion Air 737 Max that went down in Indonesia in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines plane of the same model that crashed in March. MCAS malfunctioned on both flights, repeatedly pushing the planes' noses down until their final, fatal dives. All 346 people on both flights were killed. "Oh shocker alerT! MCAS is now active down to M .2. It's running rampant in the sim on me," Mark Forkner, Boeing's former chief technical pilot for the 737, said in 2016 to a colleague, Patrik Gustavsson, referring to the simulator, according to the transcript. "Granted, I suck at flying, but even this was egregious." His colleague replied that they would have to update the description of the system. "So I basically lied to regulators (unknowingly)," read Forkner's reply. Gustavsson responded: "It wasn't a lie, no one told us that was the case." Forkner's attorney, David Gerger, said in a statement, "If you read the whole chat, it is obvious that there was no 'lie.'" "The simulator was not reading right and had to be fixed to fly like the real plane," he said. "Mark's career - at Air Force, at FAA, and at Boeing - was about safety. He would never put anyone in an unsafe plane." 'Jedi mind-tricking regulators' Forkner in January 2017 instructed an FAA employee to remove MCAS from pilot manuals and training, according to an email between the two that was obtained by NBC News. "Delete MCAS, recall we decided we weren't going to cover it in the FCOM or the CBT, since it's way outside the normal operating envelope," Forkner wrote. He said in an earlier email to an FAA official that he was "jedi mind-tricking regulators into accepting training the training that I got accepted by FAA etc." The FAA on Friday said Boeing withheld these "concerning" messages for months from regulators. The agency, which first certified the planes in 2017, said it is "disappointed that Boeing did not bring this document to our attention immediately upon its discovery," adding it is "reviewing this information to determine what action is appropriate." Pilots at airlines, including American, complained after the crashes that they did not know about the MCAS system until after the first crash. Boeing shares fell sharply Friday after the news broke, shedding nearly 7% and shaving about 170 points off the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The stock ended at $344, the lowest close since Aug. 21. CEO under fire The messages add to pressure already piling up on Boeing and CEO Dennis Muilenburg. The company and the FAA are facing several investigations into the plane's design and software. The company's board removed Muilenburg as chairman last week, saying the division of the two roles will help him focus on bringing the plane back to service. Muilenburg is set to testify at two congressional hearings for the first time since the crashes: a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Oct. 29 and a House Transportation Committee panel scheduled for Oct. 30. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, called the instant messages "shocking, but disturbingly consistent with what we've seen so far in our ongoing investigation of the 737 MAX, especially with regard to production pressures and a lack of candor with regulators and customers." He said the incident "is not about one employee; this is about a failure of a safety culture at Boeing in which undue pressure is placed on employees to meet deadlines and ensure profitability at the expense of safety. Boeing will have to answer for this and other questions at our hearing on October 30th." If Boeing did mislead the FAA, CEO Dennis Muilenburg is done: Jim Lebenthal The FAA turned over the instant messages to U.S. lawmakers and the Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General, the agency said. "Over the past several months, Boeing has been voluntarily cooperating with the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's investigation into the 737 MAX. As part of that cooperation, today we brought to the Committee's attention a document containing statements by a former Boeing employee," Boeing said in a statement. Boeing has developed a fix for the software that misfired on the crashes but regulators haven't yet signed off. Airlines have missed out on hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue because of the grounding, which forced them to cancel flights and reduce their growth plans. Carriers repeatedly pulled the planes out of ischedules with no end in sight to the grounding. Southwest this week canceled 737 Max flights through Feb. 8, later than any U.S. carrier. "We want to know more details and we stand with [FAA] administrator [Steve] Dickson in his demand for more information and an explanation on why this information were withheld," said Dennis Tajer, spokesman for American Airlines pilots' union. Pilots at Southwest, the largest Max customer in the U.S., earlier this month sued Boeing for allegedly rushing the plane to market and said the grounding has meant its pilots have lost out on about $100 million in pay. "The FAA's announcement echoes the very serious concerns at the center of SWAPA's lawsuit, and this is more evidence that Boeing misled pilots, government regulators and other aviation experts about the safety of the 737 MAX," Southwest pilots' union said in a statement. "It is clear that the company's negligence and fraud put the flying public at risk." |
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