Boeing's 737 Max has been given clearance to fly by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) allowing for other regulators and airlines to see the model airborne again and providing a possible end to one of the company's biggest crisis.
Boeing 737 Max
The 737 Max was grounded following two reported crashes that led to the deaths of 346 people in October 2018 and March 2019 which placed fault squarely at the aerospace company for a series of internal errors.
The crashes were generally attributed to faulty control software, and other defects have kept appearing in investigations since.
Boeing's financial woes were further exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, causing strain on a company already knee-deep in a string of controversies.
Quick recovery following this crisis is not an option as it is likely the aerospace industry will take years to return to pre-pandemic levels. However, the decision by the regulation board has provided something of a silver lining for Boeing.
The company's feud with Airbus is still ongoing and has fuelled tariffs on both sides of the Atlantic.
This is just a part of the 16-year dispute between the transatlantic rivals.
The travel ban, alongside the then-unannounced tariffs, caused a decline in orders for the grounded airliner which will take years to recover from.
The FAA is mandating the US company to switch its flight control software in order to minimise the risk of similar crashes occurring in the future. This new software will be unable to activate repeatedly and can only do so with input from two sensors, instead of just one.
The flight software was built to counteract stalls by forcing the plane's nose downwards if the airliner's bulky engines forced it upwards. The flight software falsely signalled a stall, which forced the nose of the plane downwards, resulting in the crashes.
Max pilots will also be required to train using flight simulators, something Boeing avoided doing before the crash before overturning this decision back in January.
The FAA said the design changes it had required "have eliminated what caused these particular accidents," and added it was "100% confident" in the safety of the plane.
They added they had taken all the measures humanely possible to prevent further accidents from happening.
Steve Dickson, an administrator for the FAA said: “The path that led us to this point was long and gruelling. We were never driven by a timeline but rather followed a methodical and deliberate safety process. I can tell you now that I am 100 per cent comfortable with my family flying on the aircraft.”
Families of those killed in the two crashes have expressed opposition to this ruling.
Michael Stumo, whose 24-year-old daughter Samya was killed in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 that crashed in March 2019 told the FT that the public should avoid using the Max for future travel.
He added: “It’s still a more dangerous aircraft than other modern planes.”
Likewise, Paul Njoroge, who lost his wife, three children and mother-in-law in the same accident expressed "sheer disappointment" when interviewed by the BBC on the subject.
US lawmakers released a 100-page report back in January showing Boeing employees mocking both the regulators and the Max.
The report states: "The crashes 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 — the pernicious result of regulatory capture on the part of the FAA with respect to its responsibilities to perform robust oversight of Boeing and to ensure the safety of the flying public.”
A subcommittee also found the FAA and manufacturer had offloaded much of the regulatory responsibility to being themselves.
The US has been the first nation to reverse the grounding orders and it appears that European officials will come to a similar agreement.
The EU's Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is set to oversee re-certification in both EU member states and the UK, and Dickson has admitted to working closely with officials in the EU, as well as Brazil and Canada to ensure the Max is certified for flight again in those nations.
However, analysts predict that certification in nations such as China will be a slower process.
737 Max flights are set to resume on December 29 according to American Airlines, with United Airlines and Southwest Airlines hoping to see the Max airborne at the beginning of 2021.
Boeing admitted in a statement that they do not expect production for the Max to exceed pre-crash levels until at least 2022. The aerospace company admitted a large backlog of orders, of which only half would be delivered by the end of next year.
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