Latest news with #737Max
Mint
12 hours ago
- Automotive
- Mint
Boeing 737 Max engine issue can cause smoke in the Cabin, warns NTSB
Boeing 737 Max: US safety investigators have called for urgent action regarding an engine issue on the Boeing Co. 737 Max aircraft that could fill the cockpit and cabin with smoke. The National Transportation Safety Board's recommendation comes after two such incidents were reported in which planes were filled with smoke after large birds struck their engines. Both incidents involved 737 Max aircraft flown by Southwest Airlines and powered by Leap-1B engines made by CFM International, which is a joint venture of GE Aerospace and Safran SA. The NTSB connected the incidents to a malfunction with one of the engine's key safety features. In both cases, damage to the fan blades following the bird strikes activated a safety feature known as the load reduction device in the Leap-1B engines. This device is meant to protect the aircraft from heavy vibrations that can cause further problems. However, in those incidents when the system activated, there was a malfunction that led to oil leaking into the hot section of the engine, causing smoke to enter the cockpit or cabin and posing a potential safety risk. The safety agency on Wednesday urged the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure flight crews are alerted to the problem and to emphasise revisions Boeing has made to flight manuals detailing steps pilots should take if they come across any issues, Bloomberg reported. It also asked the FAA, as well as other aviation authorities in the European Union and China, to determine whether the same issue exists in other variants of the Leap engine used by Airbus SE and Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China Ltd., known more commonly as Comac. The FAA said that both the regulator and Boeing have alerted operators to the issue. 'We advised operators to evaluate their procedures and crew training to ensure they address this potential issue'. 'When the engine manufacturer develops a permanent mitigation, we will require operators to implement it within an appropriate timeframe,' the news agency reported. A spokesperson for CFM said that work is already underway to address the smoke risk. This includes a software update for the Leap-1B and assessments to determine whether other variants have a similar issue. According to Bloomberg, Boeing also responded by stating that it has been working with CFM on the software update and supports the NTSB's recommendation. 'We're reviewing the recommendations and have mitigation procedures currently in place,' Southwest said in a statement. The carrier said it is in close contact with the FAA, Boeing and CFM on the issue and on identifying a permanent solution. Southwest also said it notified its flight crews about the potential effects of some bird strikes following the incidents, which both occurred in 2023. The NTSB announced in November that it was investigating one of the 2023 occurrences. Bloomberg said that decision came after the FAA said it would hold a Corrective Action Review Board to evaluate internal recommendations compiled by a small group of the regulator's investigators that had leaked to the public. The recommendations included a short-term fix that would require pilots to temporarily alter takeoff procedures while Boeing worked on a more permanent solution. However, the FAA's Aircraft Certification Service determined that the short-term change wasn't necessary and instead proposed mandating a longer-term fix to update the engine software, according to a memo from the Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General, the new agency reported.
a day ago
- Automotive
NTSB urges quick fix on Boeing plane engines to prevent smoke from filling cabin after a bird strike
Safety experts recommended Wednesday that the engines on Boeing's troubled 737 Max airplanes be modified quickly to prevent smoke from filling the cockpit or cabin after a safety feature is activated following a bird strike. The problem detailed by the National Transportation Safety Board emerged after two bird strikes involving Southwest Airlines planes in 2023 — one in Havana, Cuba, and another in New Orleans. The Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing already warned airlines and pilots about the problem and the engine maker has been working on a fix. The NTSB said that the engines CFM International makes for the Boeing plane can inadvertently release oil into the hot engine when the safety feature, called a load reduction device, is activated after a bird strike or similar engine issue. The resulting smoke feeds directly into either the cockpit or passenger cabin depending on which engine was struck. Similar engine models with the same safety feature are also used on Airbus A320neo planes and C919 planes made by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China. The NTSB urged European and Chinese aviation safety regulators to evaluate those engine models to determine if they could also be susceptible to the smoke problem. The new safety device that CFM added to its engines solved one problem by limiting damage when an engine starts to come apart, but created a new problem by releasing the oil that burns and generates smoke. 'This is a case of an unintended consequence of a new and innovative safety idea where if the fan gets unbalanced that this is a way to alleviate the load and thereby doing less damage to the engine, the engine pylon, all of that,' said aviation safety expert John Cox, who is CEO of the Safety Operating Systems consulting firm. CFM said in a statement that it is 'aligned with the NTSB's recommendations and the work is already underway, in close partnership with our airframers, to enhance the capability of this important system.' The company, which is a joint venture between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines, confirmed it is working on a software update for the 737 Max's engines and said it is evaluating similar engine models. Boeing said it is working with CFM on the update and the planemaker supports NTSB's recommendations. Boeing also updated some of the checklists pilots rely on to help them take appropriate actions. The NTSB investigated a December 2023 incident in which a Southwest Airlines plane struck a bird while taking off from New Orleans and had to land quickly after thick smoke filled the cockpit — even making it hard for the pilot to see the instrument panel or his copilot. In an incident nine months earlier involving another Southwest 737 Max, smoke filled the cabin after a bird strike after takeoff in Havana. Air from the left engine on a 737 Max flows directly into the cockpit while air from the right engine flows into the passenger cabin. While these incidents were both bird strikes, the NTSB said this could happen in certain other circumstances. The FAA said in a statement that it agrees with the NTSB recommendations and when 'the engine manufacturer develops a permanent mitigation, we will require operators to implement it within an appropriate timeframe.' Pilots can act to limit smoke in the plane by manually cutting off airflow from the engines, but smoke can quickly start to fill the cabin within a few seconds. The engine manufacturer is working on a software update that should do that automatically, but that's not expected to be ready until sometime in the first quarter of next year. The NTSB said in its report that several pilots who fly Boeing 737s told investigators they weren't aware of these incidents despite the efforts Boeing and the FAA have made. The NTSB said 'it is critical to ensure that pilots who fly airplanes equipped with CFM LEAP-1B engines are fully aware of the potential for smoke in the cockpit.' Airbus didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. A Southwest spokesperson said the airline has been in close contact with the FAA, Boeing and the engine maker since the incidents and notified its pilots after they happened. The spokesperson said the airline continues to address the issue through its training and safety management systems. The Boeing 737 Max planes have been the focus since they were involved in both incidents, and there has been a history of other problems with that plane. The Max version of Boeing's bestselling 737 airplane has been the source of persistent troubles for Boeing after two of the jets crashed. The crashes, one in Indonesia in 2018 and another in Ethiopia in 2019, killed 346 people. The problem in those crashes stemmed from a sensor providing faulty readings that pushed the nose down, leaving pilots unable to regain control. After the second crash, Max jets were grounded worldwide until the company redesigned the system. Last month, the Justice Department reached a deal to allow Boeing to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading U.S. regulators about the Max before the two crashes. Worries about the plane flared up again after a door plug blew off a Max operated by Alaska Airlines, leading regulators to cap Boeing's production at 38 jets per month. The NTSB plans to meet next Tuesday to discuss what investigators found about that incident.
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Boeing keeps low profile at Paris Air Show as Airbus hits $27 billion orders
An Airbus A350-1000 passenger aircraft performs during an exhibition flight demonstration as the Paris Air Show on June 18. PHOTO: AFP PARIS – Every other year, thousands of visitors flock to a Paris suburb for the Paris Air Show, one of the aerospace industry's biggest events. The atmosphere is typically celebratory, but the recent deadly crash of an Air India flight cast a shadow over the show this week. The contrasting moods were apparent in the rivalry between two of the show's most prominent aircraft manufacturers: Airbus and Boeing. Airbus said it had withheld some announcements, but still secured US$21 billion (S$27 billion) of orders for new commercial jets, while rival Boeing opted not to announce new sales following last week's Air India 787 crash. The cause of the crash, in which at least 270 people died in the plane and on the ground, has yet to be determined. But it happened at a delicate moment for Boeing, which had appeared to be moving past a series of setbacks in recent years. The company reported nearly 350 orders in May, some of which were part of a trade deal between the United States and Britain. That made May Boeing's best month for sales in a year and a half. Boeing also reached a crucial production target in May for its most popular plane, the 737 Max. Boeing's chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, and the head of its commercial plane unit, Stephanie Pope, were scheduled to attend the air show, but cancelled their plans after the Air India crash. The sober atmosphere for Boeing was a contrast to Airbus, which boasted major orders for its most popular jets, including 40 A220 single-aisle jets for LOT Polish Airlines and a deal with VietJet for up to 150 single-aisle jets. Airbus also scored big wins in Saudi Arabia, which wants to become an international air travel hub: Riyadh Air ordered 25 A350 wide-body aircraft, while AviLease, a Saudi jet leasing company, ordered 40 commercial and cargo jets. Still, Airbus said it had chosen to hold back some announcements. 'The cold shower we all had was the Air India accident, so we've actually scaled back,' said Christian Scherer, the CEO of Airbus' commercial aircraft business. He added that although aerospace was extremely competitive, Airbus never used safety to its advantage: 'You don't go there.' Boeing has been in catch-up mode the past few years as its rival has pulled ahead in orders. Even if it does see any slowdown in business because of the crash, it will probably be temporary if the investigation clears the plane itself, said Richard Aboulafia, a managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, a consulting firm. 'If there's any pullback from orders in the aftermath of this tragedy, it's purely for optics,' he said. Airlines remain confident in Boeing's planes and have only one major alternative in Airbus. It could take months to determine the cause of the crash. The plane's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, both of which have been recovered, should yield a wealth of information, experts said. It was the first fatal crash involving a Dreamliner, a popular choice for long-distance routes because of its range, fuel efficiency and other factors. More than 1,100 are in service today, according to Cirium, an aviation data firm. India's aviation authority, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, said on June 17 that a review of Air India's remaining Dreamliner planes 'did not reveal any major safety concerns.' NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Families of 737 crash victims urge US judge to reject Boeing deal
Lawyers for 15 families argued Boeing should stand trial for criminal conspiracy as the government had originally planned, to hold the company more accountable for the deaths of 346 people Bloomberg Family members of people killed in two fatal crashes of Boeing Co's 737 Max jets urged a federal judge to reject a proposed deal the company reached with US prosecutors that would allow the planemaker to avoid a criminal charge. Lawyers for 15 families argued Boeing should stand trial for criminal conspiracy as the government had originally planned, to hold the company more accountable for the deaths of 346 people, according to a court filing Wednesday. Some family members asked the judge to appoint a special prosecutor to oversee the case. 'The conspiracy charge against Boeing has been pending now for more than four years,' the families' lawyers said. 'Boeing has admitted all the facts necessary to prove it is guilty. And yet, the government now moves to dismiss the charge.' They added, 'It is difficult to imagine a case more deserving of a public trial than this one.' The US Justice Department in May asked US District Judge Reed O'Connor in Fort Worth to dismiss the case as part of a proposed settlement reached with Boeing. Under the deal, the planemaker agreed to pay more than $1.1 billion in fees and fines, while taking steps to strengthen internal quality and safety measures. In return, the company will avoid criminal prosecution. Prosecutors have argued that the deal 'secures meaningful accountability' and ensures Boeing faces penalties and oversight, an outcome they say would not be guaranteed if they took the case to trial. Asked to comment on the relatives' objections, a Boeing representative pointed to a May 29 company statement. 'Boeing is committed to complying with its obligations under this resolution, which include a substantial additional fine and commitments to further institutional improvements and investments,' the company said. The families also claimed language in the deal would obligate the government to not prosecute Boeing even if O'Connor rejects the motion to dismiss the case, which would skirt full judicial review. 'If this court approves the parties' maneuver in this widely publicized case, then this unprecedented approach will likely become the blueprint for all future dismissal motions in federal criminal prosecutions,' they said in the filing. In a separate filing, some family members asked the judge to appoint an independent prosecutor to 'restore integrity to these proceedings and ensure that justice — rather than politics — guides the resolution of this matter.' Relatives of crash victims have spent years fighting for harsher penalties for Boeing following the two fatal crashes of its 737 Max jet in 2018 and 2019. Both crashes were linked to a flawed flight control system on the jets. The families said the fatal Air India crash earlier this month involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner shows that 'the stakes for aviation safety are very high.' The cause of the crash remains under investigation. To be sure, some families support the settlement. But those who want Boeing to go to trial said the company had dangled money 'in front of the families, apparently hoping that it will lead them to back off their efforts to hold Boeing accountable for killing their loved ones. And Boeing's offer appears to have had the desired effect, at least with respect to a few families.' If O'Connor agrees to a dismissal, it would end the long-running criminal case against Boeing over the crashes. But it would also mark a notable reversal in the proceedings. Just last year, Boeing had agreed to plead guilty to the pending criminal conspiracy charge under a deal that was ultimately rejected by O'Connor. Under the new settlement Boeing will admit to the underlying accusation of 'conspiracy to obstruct and impede the lawful operation of the Federal Aviation Administration Aircraft Evaluation Group,' but that admission does not constitute a guilty plea. The government said it could refile criminal charges against the company if Boeing is accused of violating the terms of the two-agreement. Some family members dispute that claim, saying the statute of limitations has already expired. The agreement requires Boeing to pay a total of $1.1 billion in assorted fines and fees. The total includes: $487.2 million for a criminal penalty, half of which the company already paid to the government during an earlier phase of the case $444.5 million for a new 'Crash-Victims Beneficiaries Fund' that will be divided evenly by crash victim $455 million in investments to bolster its compliance, safety and quality programs Boeing would be required to retain a so-called independent compliance consultant to oversee its efforts to improve the effectiveness of its anti-fraud compliance and ethics program. The consultant will be expected to make recommendations for improvements and report their findings directly to the government. The case is US v. Boeing, 21-cr-005, US District Court, Northern District of Texas (Fort Worth).
The Wire
2 days ago
- Business
- The Wire
Quality Concerns in Dreamliners That Boeing Sold to Air India Had Given a Manager Nightmares
This report first appeared on The American Prospect and was republished with permission. Read the original here. Sign up for the Prospect's newsletter here. For 15 years now, engineers and quality control specialists have implored regulators, journalists and airlines to take a closer look at the 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's first and only clean-sheet commercial airplane designed from scratch since the company's horrific 1997 merger with McDonnell Douglas. The smooth surface of the lightweight composite fibres used to construct the airframe can conceal deadly structural flaws, they warned. The non-union workforce that manufactures the jets in South Carolina is unqualified to stand up to 'good old boy' bosses constantly pressuring them to ignore obvious nonconformities, install malfunctioning parts and cut every corner imaginable to get planes out the door, they asserted. Unsavoury subcontractors have exploited Boeing's lax standards to litter the assembly line with fake parts, they until today, the contrarians could always demand to know: if the Dreamliner is so unsafe, why hasn't it ever crashed?The late John Barnett, who died last March in an apparent suicide two days into a three-day deposition stemming from the insane practices he witnessed and tried vainly to stop as a quality manager at the Dreamliner's final assembly plant in Charleston, South Carolina, had a ready answer for this question: Just wait a bit. Most planes aren't designed to dive nosefirst into the ground like the 737 Max. It generally takes, he'd say with audible sadness, ten or twelve years for assembly-line sloppiness to culminate in a plane crash. (Barnett personally drove everywhere in the orange truck in which he died.)More from Maureen TkacikIt's too early to know exactly what caused the bizarre crash of Air India 171 in Ahmedabad, a western India city of 5.6 million people, just seconds into what was supposed to be a 10-hour flight to London. The pilot reportedly cried 'engine failure' in a mayday call to air traffic controllers seconds before the crash into a guest house for doctors, and footage of the plane, which slowly sank with its nose upturned in takeoff position, suggests a sudden loss of power. The 787 Dreamliner has been plagued by engine problems partially caused by the abundance of so-called 'foreign object debris' Boeing assembly line workers chronically leave on aircraft components in their haste to move to the next far, Boeing has only said they were 'working to gather more information' on the crash. Air India has confirmed that 241 of the 242 passengers aboard have died, with the lone survivor being treated in a nearby was demoted and ostracised after he attempted to force workers to disassemble and clean wire bundles and electrical boxes that had been littered with metal scraps of floorboard fasteners, scraps he knew could cause the electrical systems to short-circuit. Another former quality manager I know was fired after refusing to sign off on improperly-tied wire bundles littered with foreign object debris that had already begun to fray. FOD was implicated in a massive engine fire aboard a 787 test flight in 2010, and another test flight in Charleston in 2016 that Boeing was so keen to sweep under the rug it appealed to the Supreme Court rather than allow employee-witnesses to be deposed. (That case was settled before the Supreme Court made a decision.)A now-defunct Norwegian airline claimed in a 2020 lawsuit blaming Boeing for its demise that it had been forced to divert flights and cancel whole routes due to engine problems, and replace the engines on its Dreamliner fleet hundreds of times. In 2023 one of the airline's former 787s was dismantled for scrap, a literally unheard-of fate for a 10-year-old plane with a nine-figure list there's something else: two people deeply familiar with the Charleston 787 plant told the Prospect they had particularly acute quality concerns over planes that were delivered to Air Kitchens, a former quality manager who worked at the Charleston plant between 2009 and 2016, has a binder full of notes, documents and photos from her frustrating years at Boeing, one page of which lists the numbers of the eleven planes delivered between early 2012 and late 2013 whose quality defects most kept her awake at night. Six of them went to Air India, whose purchases were bolstered by billions of dollars in Export-Import Bank loan guarantees. The plane that crashed was delivered in January 2014 from Boeing's now-defunct assembly line in Everett, Washington, though its mid- and aft- fuselages were produced in it happens, that particular plane was delivered not long after a camera crew from Al-Jazeera showed up in Charleston to investigate the horror stories its reporters had been hearing about the workmanship and corporate culture of the plant. The channel's journalists had started digging into the plane's quality standards a year earlier, when the FAA grounded the planes for a few months after two small battery fires broke out on Japanese planes over the course of three days. Their findings were alarming: the company had outsourced most of the non-conceptual design of the plane to its suppliers, the FAA had fast-tracked the batteries and a host of other novel features aboard the planes without anything approaching the rigorous testing they had required for earlier planes, a major battery supplier's testing lab suffered a massive explosion whose precise cause had never been determined and an engineer had been fired for refusing to 'dumb down' his instructions for repairing flaws in the lightweight composite structures Boeing used to build the plane's most harrowing, however, was the footage filmed by an assembly line worker who wore a hidden camera as went about his day chatting up colleagues, virtually all of whom said they would never allow their family members to fly one of the planes the factory was was on medical leave with cancer when the footage was filmed, but the documentary premiered shortly after she returned, and leadership convened a meeting to encourage managers to snitch on anyone they recognized from the undercover footage.'I raised my hand and said, 'No one who works in this factory wants to fly these planes, I mean, that's just the truth,'' Kitchens said. A woman she didn't know, who was wearing a bomber jacket emblazoned with the FAA logo, shot her a scowl. But it was hardly the first time she'd expressed anxiety over the planes' safety with upper management. Years earlier, she had asked a boss if he would let his children fly on a plane with the litany of flaws and non-conformances he was urging her to 'pencil-whip': 'Cindy, none of these planes are staying in America, they're all going overseas,' he retorted, much to her investigator who worked on the documentary told the Prospect that employees he interviewed were especially anxious about three planes they had worked on that were scheduled to be delivered to Air India during the first months of 2014. The planes all had serious flaws that required them to be flown to the union assembly line in Everett to be re-worked. The Air India Dreamliner that crashed today took off from the Everett airport en route to Delhi for the first time on January 31, Tkacik is investigations editor at the Prospect and a senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project.
