The Boeing and 737 Max Nightmare

The Boeing and 737 Max Nightmare

American aircraft manufacturer Boeing has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. The company’s plane, Boeing 737 Max, once hyped as one of the best things to happen to the aviation industry due to its technological advancement, has lost its edge.

The Boeing 737 Max has suffered major engineering and design defects. First, the 737 Max planes were involved in serious fatal accidents. Some 346 people were killed in the Boeing 737 Max crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 in the late 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 fewer than five month later.

Most recently, a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane operated by Alaska Airlines ripped off its door plug midair, prompting authorities in the U.S. to direct airline companies to ground the Max 9 planes to allow for investigation into what caused the fuselage defect.

Just as we thought this is all done, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s 737 plane was deemed unsafe to fly out of Switzerland where the U.S. official was attending the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. This has added another complication to the already embattled aircraft manufacturer.

Streak of issues with 737 Max

You would have thought that Boeing’s 737 Max planes could not experience similar issues that somehow it would make sense to believe the plane maker only made a few mistakes in the process. But no, series of design and engineering issues have been detected and reported with the 737 Max.

In the case of Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines, the accidents were triggered by design flaws, in particular the use of flight control software known as MCAS. The system was designed to assist pilots familiar with previous generations of the 737, and prevent them from needing costly extra training in order to fly the new model.

However, sensor failures caused it to malfunction, and in both cases it forced the aircraft into catastrophic dive the pilots were unable to prevent.

Investigations revealed at the time that Boeing did not include information about the MCAS system into pilot manuals or training guidance, and had deliberately sought to downplay the impact of the system in its communication to the U.S. regulator.

Ethiopian Airlines grounded all the Max models it had purchased and put on hold the orders it had made, as well as paid a major price in court battles to compensate for the lives lost. Globally, the 737 Max planes were grounded for two years, but flights resumed in June 2021.

In a major turn last year, Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest carrier, announced that it had ordered 20 Boeing 737-8 Max planes, the same model that killed 157 people on board, citing its renewed confidence in the plane.

While that story hold water from a business perspective, it is not entirely true that Boeing defects on Max planes were fully corrected. That is why most carriers have avoided buying the model since the fatal accidents.

Profits Over Safety?

It is not just Ethiopian Airlines that has kept the 737 Max among its fleet, other African carriers have made more orders of the 737 Max with hopes that these large narrow-body aircraft could enable them increase their profit margins due to its excellent economics.

Royal Air Maroc currently operates two 737 Max 8 among its fleet with four additional 737 Max 8s to be delivered.

Algeria’s national carrier, Air Algérie, last year signed a deal with Boeing to purchase eight B737 Max planes to expand its fleet.

Egypt Air is another African carrier that has joined other aviation players in this quest to acquire more wide body aircraft. The country’s flag carrier recently signed deal to lease 18 Boeing 737 Max planes to be delivered as early as 2025.

Rwandair had also planned to acquire two 737 Max planes, but it seemed as though those plans were put on hold due to safety concerns.

It is obvious that African carriers and other global carriers are racing to acquire the newest aircraft models because of their reported cost effectiveness, and they are hoping they could turn a profit in a sector that has become lucrative as more and more people fly.

As such, many airlines are ignoring the manufacturing flaws in the 737 Max models even after investigations have proven to show these flaws exist and many passengers have expressed fears of flying these kind of models. This, to a certain extent, points to the fact that airlines are prioritizing profit margins over safety.

While safety has kept the reputation of aviation industry up there and gave travelers confidence to fly, paying less attention to safety issues especially in the case of Boeing 737 Max could take away the confidence that people had in air travel.

It has become increasingly clear that Boeing itself is under pressure from its competitor Airbus that sometimes it has used tactics to deliver plane orders quickly, overlooking some standards and compliance. Boeing has been accused of delivering the aircraft before it was ready to fly safely.

If this trend continues and Boeing as well as global carriers shift from a safety first philosophy that has guided the aviation sector for long to prioritizing profits and dividends for stakeholders, the reputation of air travel is at stake.