Boeing has announced plans to upgrade software in its 737 MAX 8 planes "in the coming weeks", as regulators scrutinise two fatal crashes of the new model of aircraft since October. Key points: Boeing, the world's largest plane maker, is fighting off safety fears about its 737 MAX Boeing, the world's largest plane maker, is fighting off safety fears about its 737 MAX US transport authorities and Boeing's CEO say the plane is safe to fly US transport authorities and Boeing's CEO say the plane is safe to fly The US Federal Aviation Authority demands new design updates by April The move to deploy the software upgrade came a few hours after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it would mandate "design changes" in the aircraft by April. In making the statement, Boeing did not reference Sunday's Ethiopian Airlines crash, but it did express the company's condolences to the relatives of the 157 people who died. The United States has said the Boeing 737 MAX 8 is airworthy, as regulators scrutinise the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the crash of a Lion Air jet in Indonesia on October 29, which killed all 189 people on board. In a notice, the FAA said Boeing was working to complete "flight control system enhancements, which provide reduced reliance on procedures associated with required pilot memory items". Singapore Airlines has become the latest carrier to suspend the 737 MAX 8. The company says its SilkAir fleet of six 737 MAX 8 planes will be temporarily withdrawn from service, adding in a Facebook statement that "the safety of our customers and crew is our highest priority". China and Indonesia also grounded their fleets of 737 MAX 8 aircraft earlier on Monday, citing safety concerns, contributing to a drop in Boeing shares that wiped billions of dollars off the market value of the world's biggest plane maker. "This is welcome information on the enhancements to address shortfalls that our pilots noted after Lion Air, which is a silver lining," said Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the American Airlines pilot union and a 737 pilot. Boeing says it has been working on updates for months The FAA also said Boeing "plans to update training requirements and flight crew manuals to go with the design change" to an automated protection system called the Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System or MCAS. The company said in the aftermath of the Lion Air crash that it had "been developing a flight control software enhancement for the 737 MAX, designed to make an already safe aircraft even safer". The changes also include MCAS activation and angle of attack signal enhancements, which was a function that Lion Air pilots fought in an accident that brought down the same model of jet. Reuters and other media outlets have reported that Boeing had for months planned design changes after the Lion Air crash in Indonesia but the FAA notice was the first public confirmation. The FAA has cited the 737 MAX's automatic controls as an issue. ( Flickr: Paul Thompson An Ethiopian Airlines MAX 8 bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 onboard and raising questions about the safety of the new variant of the industry workhorse, one of which also crashed and killed 189 people in Indonesia in October. The discovery of black box recorders means the cause of the crash may be quickly understood, as long as recordings are not damaged, although it typically takes a year for a detailed investigation to be completed. The FAA said in the notice made public that external reports are drawing similarities between the crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia. "However, this investigation has just begun and to date we have not been provided data to draw any conclusions or take any actions," according to the Continued Airworthiness Notification to the International Community for Boeing 737 MAX 8 operators. "I want people to be assured that we take these incidents, these accidents, very seriously," said US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said . In an email to employees that was seen by Reuters, Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg said he was confident in the safety of the 737 MAX. Democratic US senator Dianne Feinstein urged the FAA to ground Boeing's 737 MAX 8 fleet. "Until the cause of the crash is known and it's clear that similar risks aren't present in the domestic fleet, I believe all Boeing 737 Max 8 series aircraft operating in the United States should be temporarily grounded," Ms Feinstein wrote. Black boxes allow investigators to determine the cause of a plane crash quickly. ( Reuters Boeing may face lawsuits from victims' families in the US, where legal compensation payments for people killed in plane crashes could run around $US2 to 3 million per person ($2.8 to 4.2 million), depending on the law applied, compared to about $US200,000 in Ethiopia, according to Justin Green, a New York-based aviation lawyer who has represented families in cases against Boeing. Boeing declined to comment on its insurance cover. The company's share price briefly had its biggest one-day drop since the 9/11 attacks of 2001, falling as much as 13.5 per cent early on Monday on fears that two crashes in such a short time could reveal flaws in the new plane. On Monday, FAA chief Dan Elwell said the notification basically "informs the international community where we are and (gives) sort of … one answer to the whole community". He dubbed it a "broadcast to the world about where we are." Paul Hudson, the president of website Flyers Rights and a member of the FAA aviation rulemaking advisory committee, on Monday said the plane should be grounded. "The FAA's 'wait and see' attitude risks lives as well as the safety reputation of the US aviation industry," Ms Hudson said in a statement Monday. The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are both at the crash site in Ethiopia, Ms Chao said. Boeing's safety reputation hits turbulence Boeing's investors have been spooked after the manufacturer's planes recently suffered two fatal incidents. ( Reuters: Brendan McDermid Boeing, whose shares closed down 5.3 per cent at $US400.01 in the heaviest trading since July 2013, did not immediately comment on the FAA notification. The 737 series, which has flown for more than 50 years, is the world's best-selling modern passenger aircraft and viewed as one of the industry's most reliable. China ordered its airlines to ground the jet, a move followed by Indonesia and Ethiopia and individual carriers such as South Africa's Comair and Morocco's Royal Air Maroc. Virgin Australia has ordered 30 of the same jets, but none are currently in circulation. Other airlines, from North America to the Middle East, kept flying the 737 MAX 8 on Monday after Boeing said it was safe. Boeing's 737 MAX is the newest version of a jet that has been a fixture of passenger travel for decades and the cash cow of the world's largest aircraft maker, competing against Airbus's A320neo family of single-aisle jetliners. The MAX has a bigger and more efficient engine compared to earlier 737 models. Boeing rolled out the fuel-efficient MAX 8 in 2017 as an update to the already redesigned 50-year-old 737, and had delivered 350 MAX jets out of the total order tally of 5,011 aircraft by the end of January. ABC/Reuters<doc-sep>Boeing says the update is "designed to make an already safe aircraft even safer." Too Little Too Late In a statement posted late Monday night, American aerospace giant Boeing promised a software “enhancement” for its all of its Boeing 737 Max jets. That’s notable because the 737 Max 8 has been involved in two recent crashes that have captured international attention: one in October operated by Indonesian airline Lion Air (Flight 610) which killed 189 and a second crash only four months later of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 which killed more than 150. The precise relationship between the deadly accidents and the software update remains opaque, but the story highlights the uneasy truth that we’ve given over much of the control of modern aircraft to computerized systems — meaning a software glitch or hack could, potentially, endanger countless lives. Installing Updates Boeing says the update is “designed to make an already safe aircraft even safer.” Advertisement Advertisement Specifically, it includes overhauls for a number of important controls: “The enhanced flight control law incorporates angle of attack (AOA) inputs, limits stabilizer trim commands in response to an erroneous angle of attack reading.” Aviation experts found that the pilot on board the Lion Air crash in Indonesia last October had to deal with “erroneous input from an angle of attack (AOA) sensor,” The Guardian reported. Details surrounding the cause of Sunday’s crash are still unknown. Deeply Saddened “The Boeing Company is deeply saddened by the loss of Lion Air Flight 610, which has weighed heavily on the entire Boeing team, and we extend our heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the families and loved ones of those onboard,” reads Boeing’s statement. Advertisement Advertisement In a direct response to the Boeing crashes, governments across the globe banned airlines from flying Boeing 737 Max 8 planes, including the United Kingdom, Singapore, Germany, Oman, and Australia. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) tweeted on Sunday that it is “closely monitoring developments” in Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash. READ MORE: Boeing Promises to Release Software Update For 737 Max Planes by April [Gizmodo] More on Boeing: Death From Above: Boeing Unveils Autonomous Fighter Jet Advertisement Advertisement As a Futurism reader, we invite you join the Singularity Global Community, our parent company’s forum to discuss futuristic science & technology with like-minded people from all over the world. It’s free to join, sign up now!<doc-sep>
After consulting with the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board and airlines, Boeing is throwing its support behind a decision to ground its 737 Max planes. “Boeing has determined — out of an abundance of caution and in order to reassure the flying public of the aircraft’s safety — to recommend to the FAA the temporary suspension of operations of the entire global fleet of 371 737 MAX aircraft,” the company said in a statement. Boeing’s statement comes amid mounting pressure for the FAA to ground Boeing’s planes and belies the company’s reported efforts behind the scenes to keep its planes aloft — at least in the United States. The company’s chief executive, Dennis A. Muilenburg, reportedly called from Chicago to assure President Trump about the safety of the planes, which have been involved in crashes on flights operated by Ethiopian and Indonesian airline carriers, according to a report in The New York Times. According to the Times report, the call had been planned since Monday, but came after the president had called the safety of passenger airlines into question — blaming an overabundance of technology for the recent spate of accidents. Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT. I see it all the time in many products. Always seeking to go one unnecessary step further, when often old and simpler is far better. Split second decisions are…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2019 Indeed, Boeing’s acquiescence arrives even as President Donald Trump was readying an emergency order that would ground the planes. BREAKING: Trump: "We're going to be issuing an emergency order of prohibition regarding all flights of the 737 max 8 and 737 max 9." — Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) March 13, 2019 “We are supporting this proactive step out of an abundance of caution. Safety is a core value at Boeing for as long as we have been building airplanes; and it always will be. There is no greater priority for our company and our industry,” according to a statement from Boeing. “We are doing everything we can to understand the cause of the accidents in partnership with the investigators, deploy safety enhancements and help ensure this does not happen again.” And the Federal Aviation Administration has now grounded the planes. Here’s the statement from the FAA: