Boeing has completed the software update development of the troubled Boeing 737 Max, and is now working the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to schedule its certification test flight.
No timeline has been given, but the aircraft manufacturer says that it has also wrapped up simulator testing, and its engineering test flight for the 737 Max.
To date, Boeing has flown the updated manoeuvring characteristics augmentation system (MCAS) software — implicated in two recent fatal crashes — for more than 360 hours on 207 flights.
Boeing
“We are now providing additional information to address [FAA] requests that include additional detail on how pilots interact with the airplane controls and displays in different flight scenarios,” adds Boeing.
Boeing’s statement comes a day after US lawmakers grilled FAA acting chief Dan Elwell about the FAA’s certification and oversight of both Boeing and the 737 Max.
Elwell sat before a House Transportation Committee panel, where he admitted that pilots should have known more about the MCAS.
The 737 Max, the subject of multiple high-level investigations, remains grounded worldwide, after two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people.
Crash investigations have focused on the MCAS software, implicating it as a contributory factor to the crashes.
A preliminary investigation report into the 10 March crash of an Ethiopian 737 Max 8 said the aircraft crashed after flight control software pushed the aircraft's nose down. The pilots followed procedures laid out by Boeing and the FAA to address such a scenario, officials said.
Five months earlier, a Lion Air 737 Max 8 crashed following similar circumstances.
latestnewsmainpage
Source: Cirium Dashboard
