Boeing 737 MAX no relation Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302
Grounding and recertification
In 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX was grounded worldwide after a malfunctioning flight control system caused two new aircraft to crash in Indonesia (Lion Air Flight 610 on October 29, 2018) and Ethiopia (Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019), killing all 346 people on board both flights. China became the first air authority to ground the aircraft on March 11, 2019, setting a worldwide precedent as Singapore, India, Turkey, South Korea, the European Union, Australia and Malaysia followed the next day. The United States Federal Aviation Administration was one of the last to ground the aircraft, defending against groundings by issuing a Continued Airworthiness Notice to operators on March 11, garnering widespread controversy before finally grounding it on March 13, 2019. Investigations faulted a Boeing cover-up of a defect and lapses in the FAA's certification of the aircraft for flight. After being charged with fraud, Boeing settled to pay over US$2.5 billion in penalties and compensation. Further investigations also revealed that the United States Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing had colluded on recertification test flights, attempted to cover up important information and that the FAA had retaliated against whistleblowers.In the twenty months during the grounding, Boeing redesigned the computer architecture that supported the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) while investigations faulted aircraft design and certification lapses. Flawed information from a single external sensor fed into the system caused it to repeatedly push the planes' noses down as pilots struggled to keep them in the air before both crashes. Boeing faces legal and financial consequences, as no deliveries of the MAX could be made while the aircraft was grounded, and airlines canceled more orders than Boeing produced during this period. Boeing found foreign object debris in the fuel tanks of 35 of 50 grounded 737 MAX aircraft that were inspected, and had to check the remainder of the 400 undelivered planes. Boeing had similar problems with 787s produced in South Carolina. The FAA curtailed Boeing's delegated authority and invited global aviation stakeholders to comment on pending changes to the aircraft and to pilot training. The FAA lifted its grounding order in 2020; all aircraft must be repaired to comply with various airworthiness directives.After being charged with fraud in connection of both crashes of the 737 MAX, Boeing settled by paying over $2.5 billion: a criminal monetary penalty of $243.6 million (10%), $1.77 billion in damages to airline customers (70%), and $500 million to a crash-victim beneficiaries fund (20%). In April 2022, families of U.S. crash victims began petitioning a U.S. federal judge in Texas to scrap the settlement and reopen the criminal case, arguing that the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) violated the Crime Victims' Rights Act in settling without consulting with the families, and that the USDOJ should not have agreed to shield senior Boeing executives from prosecution. USDOJ prosecutors assert that the settlement is lawful because it cannot be proven that a crime was committed against the crash victims. On January 20, 2023, a U.S. district court judge ordered Boeing to appear at a January 26 arraignment to discuss whether the company should face a felony charge of criminal conspiracy in the case.
no relation