SEATTLE/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Pilots and test crew members from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing Co ( BA.N) are slated to start a three-day certification test project for the 737 MAX on Monday, individuals acquainted with the matter informed Reuters.
The test is a turning point in Boeing’s worst-ever business crisis, long since compounded by the unique coronavirus pandemic that has slashed air travel and jet demand.
The grounding of the fast-selling 737 MAX in March 2019 after two crashes in 5 months killed 346 individuals in Ethiopia and Indonesia activated lawsuits, examinations by Congress and the Department of Justice and cut off a crucial source of Boeing’s cash.
The FAA verified to U.S. lawmakers on Sunday that an agency board had completed a review of Boeing’s security system assessment for the 737 MAX “clearing the method for flight certification screening to begin. Flights with FAA test pilots could begin as early as tomorrow, examining Boeing’s proposed modifications to the automated flight control system on the 737 MAX.”
After a preflight briefing over several hours, the team will board a 737 MAX 7 outfitted with test devices at Boeing Field near Seattle, among the people said.
The crew will run systematically scripted mid-air circumstances such as steep-banking turns, advancing to more severe maneuvers on a route mainly over Washington state. The plan over a minimum of three days could include touch-and-go landings at the eastern Washington airport in Moses Lake, and a path over the Pacific Ocean shoreline, adjusting the flight plan and timing as required for weather and other aspects, among the people said.
Pilots will also deliberately trigger the reprogrammed stall-prevention software called MCAS faulted in both crashes, and aerodynamic stall conditions, the people said.
Boeing decreased to comment.
The FAA e-mail said the screening will last numerous days and “will include a broad range of flight maneuvers and emergency situation procedures to make it possible for the agency to examine whether the modifications satisfy FAA accreditation requirements.”
It included the “FAA has not made a decision on return to service” and has a variety of extra steps before it can clear the plane to do so.
The rigors of the test project go beyond previous Boeing test flights, finished in a matter of hours on a single day, industry sources say.
The tests are meant to make sure new securities Boeing contributed to MCAS are robust enough to avoid the situation pilots came across prior to both crashes, when they were unable to neutralize MCAS and faced “stick shaker” column vibrations and other warnings, one of individuals said.
Boeing’s preparation has actually consisted of numerous hours inside a 737 MAX flight simulator at its Longacres center in Renton, Washington, and numerous hours in the air on the same 737 MAX 7 test airplane without FAA officials on board.
At least one of those practice flights included the very same screening specifications anticipated on Monday, among individuals stated.
After the flights, FAA authorities in Washington and the Seattle-area will examine reams of digital and documentation flight test data to examine the jet’s airworthiness.
Likely weeks later on, after the data is examined and training procedures are firmed up, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson, a former F-15 fighter pilot who has promised the 737 MAX will not be approved until he has actually personally approved it, will board the exact same aircraft to make his assessments, two of individuals stated.
If all works out, the FAA would then require to authorize brand-new pilot training procedures, among other evaluations, and would not likely authorize the plane’s ungrounding until September, the people stated.
That indicates the jet is on a course to resume U.S. service prior to year-end, though the process has actually been pestered by delays for more than a year.
FILE PHOTO: Boeing 737 Max aircraft are parked in a car park at Boeing Field in this aerial photo over Seattle, Washington, U.S. June 11,2020 REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Image
” Based upon the number of problems have been revealed, I would be shocked if the flight tests are ‘one and done,'” stated another individual with knowledge of the flight strategies.
Regulators in Europe and Canada, while working closely with the FAA, will likewise conduct their own assessments and have actually determined issues that go beyond the FAA. They might need extra modifications after the 737 MAX is cleared to go back to service.
” This is new area,” said one market source with understanding of prior Boeing tests. “There’s a lot more play in between regulators, and definitely a lot more pressure and spotlight.”
Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle and David Shepardson in Washington; Modifying by Christopher Cushing and Grant McCool
Reuters.
