The hearing took place exactly one year after the 737 Max crashed on the Indonesian coast and more than seven months after the second crash in Ethiopia. In total, 346 people died.
On October 29, 2019, Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg resigned after a testimony on 737 MAX when a fatal clash broke out at Capitol Hill's Senate Chamber of Commerce, Science, and Science and Transportation, Washington, USA.
(Reuters)
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg questioned Tuesday from Senator whether the two 737 Max jets crashed and whether the company hid information about critical flight systems.
Muilenburg admitted, "We made a mistake and we had a problem."
Some members of the Senate Standing Committee blocked it when they thought Muilenburg did not answer the question about the main flight control system associated with the two collisions.
Boeing successfully lobbied the regulator to maintain a description of the system called MCAS in pilot manuals and training. Senator Richard Blumenthal of D-Conn said he tried to blame the pilot after the crash.
"The pilots didn't have a chance," Blumenthal said. Passengers said, "There was no chance. Boeing was flying the coffin as a result of the decision to hide the MCAS from the pilot."
Senator Tammy Duckworth of D-Il. Said that Boeing "failed the pilots" by not telling how Max's response to the nose-down command differed from the previous 737.
"Boeing didn't tell all the truth to this committee and its families and people watching these people. And they're suffering because of these families," noticeably angry Duckworth said, pointing out the relatives of her dead passenger.
Muilenburg denied that Boeing had criticized the pilot. Many times this spring and summer, he said that the accident was caused by a "chain of events" rather than a single factor. Opinion was widely regarded as a biased criticism, including pilots.
The CEO told Senators Tuesday that Boeing has always trained pilots to cope with the same effects caused by MCAS failures (a condition called runaway trim) that could be caused by other problems.
John Hamilton, chief engineer of commercial airplanes at Muilenburg and Boeing, spent about 80 minutes at the witness table. The committee then received news from two safety officials who helped to prepare a report on the Boeing plane.
The hearing took place exactly one year after the 737 Max crashed on the Indonesian coast and more than seven months after the second crash in Ethiopia. In total, 346 people died. Muilenburg's testimony is first by Boeing executives after the crash. The CEO will testify before the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
Indonesian investigators say Boeing's MCAS design contributed to Lion Air Max's crash last October. Ethiopian authorities continue to investigate the second collision with respect to the planes that Ethiopian Airlines flew, which grounded the world's planes.
"All these accidents can be prevented," said Roger Wicker, chairman of R-Miss.
More than 12 relatives who died in the accident attended the hearing. Wicker invited them to stand with large photographs of relatives they took to their room. Muilenburg turned to see them.
In Indonesia, Lion Air's CEO pledged to follow disaster recommendations on an investigation Tuesday. Relatives of the victims sprinkled flowers in the waters of which the plane crashed a year ago.
Muilenburg told senators that Boeing is in the final stages of updating its flight software to add redundancy and improve safety. Always connect the MCAS to the second sensor and the second computer, reducing the system's ability to blow the nose of the plane.
Chicago-based Boeing hopes to get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to send planes by air by the end of the year. The FAA is also being monitored by Boeing employees for performing some certification tests and inspections. This is the approach that the FAA has followed for years.
“I need to know if Boeing and the FAA are in a hurry to authenticate Max,” says Wicker.
The committee did not get an answer to that question. Senator Jon Tester of D-Mont. Said Boeing would not wait because it blamed safety cut edges.
The tester told Muilenburg that he would "walk before riding the 737 Max." "If this happens, the company's costs are huge."
Other senators have reported a "serious" problem while testing MCAS in a flight simulator and have seized internal messages and emails since 2016 by a senior Boeing test pilot who had unknowingly lied to the regulatory authorities. Boeing handed over a message to the Justice Department earlier this year, but did not inform the FAA or Congress until this month.
Muilenburg said Boeing could not question the test pilot currently working for Southwest Airlines, and in the message he was not sure what he meant. The CEO said the male lawyer explains the simulator problem, not the MCAS itself.
Muilenburg says, “It can be. "We do not know."
Senator Ron Johnson of R-Wis. Asked why Boeing did not ground the plane, knowing that MCAS was involved immediately after the first accident. Why did another crash occur?
Muilenburg said, “We kept asking that question. "If we knew everything we knew now, we would have made a different decision."
Source: AP
Source Link : https://www.trtworld.com/business/senators-grill-boeing-ceo-over-plane-involved-in-two-crashes-30958?utm_source=other&utm_medium=rss