Potential Boeing 737 Max Safety Issue Found Shortly After LionAir Crash
According to a Bloomberg article Boeing Co. is preparing to send out a bulletin to operators of it’s new 737 MAX Models. There appears to be a potential issue with erroneous readings from a flight-monitoring system that can cause planes to aggressively dive. This is according to an inside source Bloomberg has.
According to their source this information came from the preliminary findings from last week’s LionAir crash. The bulletin would have directions for how pilots should follow an existing procedure to handle the problem.
It appears that 737 Max jets will automatically take action if the system thinks a stall is possible. It does this by pushing the nose of the plane down to avoid a stall. One of the ways this is determined is by a measurement called angle of attack. This measurement is a calculation of the angle at which wind is passing over the wings. With these rumored erroneous readings the Max jets may take action when it is not necessary.
It is still unclear if this issue had anything to do with the LionAir crash. According to the findings so far the pilots were dealing with an erroneous airspeed indication, which happened on previous flights as well. They have not been able to ascertain if the airspeed issues had anything to do with the angle of attack issue.
Conclusion
With some 200 – 737 Max jets currently in use I find these issues to be highly concerning. If Bloomberg’s source is correct then I hope that the appropriate matters are taken immediately to ensure nothing else tragic happens.
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