Boeing completes patch for software faulted in 737 MAX crashes

Boeing has completed a patch for anti-stall software linked to deadly crashes of its 737 MAX, the company said Thursday, bringing the grounded jet a step closer to resuming commercial flights.

The modification has been checked in a variety of simulations, and the 737 MAX has also completed engineering test flights, the Chicago-based planemaker said in a statement. Boeing is now giving the Federal Aviation Administration additional information on how pilots use the aircraft’s controls and displays in a variety of scenarios and will work with regulators to schedule a certification flight.

Regulatory approval of Boeing’s update to the anti-stall software, known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, is a necessary step for airlines to return the aircraft to the skies. It was sidelined in March after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed more than 346 people and raised questions about how the FAA originally approved the jet, the latest version of a single-aisle jetliner introduced in 1967.

“We’re committed to providing the FAA and global regulators all the information they need, and to getting it right,” Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in the statement. “We’re making clear and steady progress and are confident that the 737 MAX with updated MCAS software will be one of the safest airplanes ever to fly.”

Aircraft equipped with the patch have logged more than 360 hours on 207 flights, Boeing said. The software, designed to prevent the jetliner climbing at so steep an angle that the engines cut out, was flagged as a link between the two crashes after flight data showed both planes making abrupt ascents and descents during takeoff.

[Also read: Half of airline passengers afraid of Boeing 737 MAX after crashes]

In the Indonesia crash in October, a malfunctioning sensor on a 737 MAX 8 fed the plane’s computer system inaccurate data on its ascent vector and ultimately led to a struggle between the anti-stall system and the pilot. Boeing began working on its patch shortly afterward, and the fact that it hadn’t been completed was part of what prompted the high level of concern after the second crash, which occurred outside the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

While only 400 of the planes are in use worldwide, and just 67 in the U.S., losing the aircraft forced airlines to reshuffle their spring and summer schedules.

Since carriers wouldn’t accept deliveries of a plane they couldn’t use, Boeing had to cut production of what had become the best-selling model in its history, with more than 4,600 on order.

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