Following a public outcry after two Boeing 737 Max 8 model crashed in a space of five (5) months, Boeing has come out to announce a series of software updates and fixes to its automated flight control system on board its new 737 Max 8 model.
This safety fixes are in response of lawmakers in the United States and regulators around the world who had requested Boeing to prove that the 737 Max 8 is safe, after experts suggested that a flaw in the aircraft’s automated flight system was responsible for the Lion Air 737 Max and the Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crashes.
The Lion Air 737 Max and the Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crashes led to the loss of 350 lives. Lion Air 737 Max crashed in October, 2018 after it got lost off the coast of Indonesia shortly after take-off in October. While the Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crashed minutes after departure from Addis Ababa.
According to Boeing, “The new fix is to focus on the behaviour of an anti-stall system known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). The system is designed to automatically bring the nose of the aircraft down if the plane’s Angle of Attack (AOA) sensors detect that the plane is pitched too high, thus preventing a potentially catastrophic stall in mid-air.”
This new fixes is believe to overcome the problem investigators have speculated in the Lion Air 737 Max and the Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crashes that the aircraft’s Angle of Attack (AOA) sensor had fed faulty information to the MCAS, causing the plane’s nose to automatically pitch down despite flying level. Both aircraft crashed were reported to have occurred after a period of fluctuating altitude as the pilots struggled to regain control of the aircraft’s pitch.
Reports from Boeing stated that, “The software update had changed the function of MCAS in two significant ways. First, if the two AOA sensors on the plane offer “widely different readings”, MCAS will deem it a faulty reading and will not activate a pitch-down manoeuvre.
Secondly, if a scenario occurs in which the MCAS system is triggered, it will now perform the automated pitch-down only once, allowing the pilots to take control of the plane and negating the possibility of a faulty AOA reading causing the plane to continuously fight against pilot inputs.”
