The Boeing 737 MAX
This white paper describes how Boeing as well as the FAA's delegation of the authority to certify resulted in that the 737 MAX crashes. In the initial year in commercial operation two crashes killed 346 individuals. This is a first in the history of aviation, at most since it was Comet of the 1950s, which saw three crashes in one year, and brought to an end UK dominance in commercial aviation. On the 29th of October of the year 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 189 people aboard. On March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed into a field in Bishoftu, Ethiopia, killing all 157 passengers on board. Ethiopian Airlines immediately grounded its MAX fleet as well as China has grounded its entire fleet of 747 MAX planes. In the European Union grounded the 737 MAX on March 12, then Brazil as well as Canada on the 13th of March. The FAA was next, a few hours later, recognizing that many knew already: "the possibility of shared factors that led to the two incidents."
This paper was written to honor the devastated families of the victims of two fatal crashes, and to their tireless effort to correct the mistakes of Boeing along with the FAA. Boeing's efforts to install larger engines and more efficient fuel consumption on the 737 MAX airframe caused a sequence of events that led to two crashes. The challenge of fitting an engine that is larger onto an older, lower fuselage was not the first time it happened with the MAX and actually started in 1984 when the 737-300. A more stringent and independent safety regulation of the government that required airframes rather than modifications to the software enabled the 737-300 to fly in safety with larger engines. In addition, changes to delegated and oversight authority in the period in the years 1984-2016 enabled Boeing to conceal and obscure specifics of the design to the FAA and to reclaim the authority to regulate safety away from FAA.
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