Aviation regulators meet to discuss future of 737 MAX
Aviation regulators from around the world are meeting today to decide when the grounded Boeing 737 MAX can return to the skies.
Boeing has completed a software update for the aircraft model, which was grounded following two fatal crashes in five months, in which 346 people died.
The software update must be approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which could then set out a timetable for when the aircraft can return to service in the US.
TUI was the first UK airline to take delivery of the Boeing MAX-8 and has more than 30 on order. Ryanair was due to begin operating the aircraft for the first time this month, prior to the MAX being grounded.
Travel industry delegates attending Barclays Travel Forum this week were urged to try to re-build customer confidence in the aircraft when it re-commences flying.
The FAA said it would provide its safety analysis of the Boeing update to delegates from 33 countries, including the UK, Europe and China, at the meeting in Texas. The regulator said it will also provide safety experts to answer questions.
Boeing has developed a software update for the Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), a new feature on the MAX, which is designed to improve the handling of the plane and to stop it pitching up at too high an angle but which has been linked to both the Ethiopian Airlines crash in March and the Lion Air crash in Indonesia last October.
The FAA is expected to conduct a certification flight in the coming weeks, which, if successful, means the US ban could be lifted in the summer.
However, the executive chairman of the International Pilot Training Association, Captain Tilmann Gabriel, told the BBC that was unlikely: "The FAA current acting director general has made it very clear that he is not committing to October, which was the real date [for the reintroduction], but there is so much to do.
"The credibility of the FAA and Boeing is at stake here. I’m convinced that there is a fix found, but this has to be now properly introduced.
"The big thing is that the simulators had not anticipated the Mcas. Pilots didn’t know about it and if the authorities decide that all pilots have to be trained in a simulator that [could] cause a very big delay."
It is also not clear when regulators in other countries will lft the ban on the MAX. China was the first country to introduce a ban, followed by the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the EU, but the US was one of the last to ground the MAX.
Another issue facing the FAA is whether to make pilot training on 737 MAX simulators a requirement before the plane can return to service.
Meanwhile, airine body IATA is also meeting today with airlines that have grounded the MAX. Director general Alexandre de Juniac said the gathering was designed to assess what the airlines ‘expect from the manufacturer and from the regulatory authorities’.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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