The control software MCAS is considered as a possible cause for the crashes of the two Boeing 737 Max aircraft. Now the US aviation company also had to admit problems with a warning system in the cockpit. And they were known for a long time.
The US aviation company Boeing already knew about a year before the first crash of a 737-Max machine of a software problem of the model series. Boeing admitted that a few months after delivery of the 737 Max in May 2017, it had become clear that a warning system in the cockpits was not working properly.
Internal investigation
Boeing then started an internal investigation which concluded that there was no compromise on flight safety. Boeing senior management was not involved in this investigation and only after the first crash of a 737 -max machine in Indonesia on October 29, 2018, the problem has become aware.
Pilots and airlines did not inform Boeing about the faulty safety alarm system of the 737 Max machines. Only after the crash of the machine in Indonesia these had been informed, the group said on Sunday. Even the US aviation authority FAA was not informed until about one week after this disaster.
A further investigation was carried out in December, which also found that the problem posed no security risk, according to the Boeing Communication.
Initially classified as low risk
The US FAA said it had been notified by Boeing in November 2018. At that time, the committee responsible had classified the case as a low-risk problem.
At the same time, however, the Authority warned that it would have been helpful if Boeing had informed the affected airlines earlier in order to reduce or eliminate potential confusion.
On 10 March, there had been a second crash of a 737 Max in Ethiopia. Altogether 346 people died in the accidents. An error of a control software called MCAS, which was developed especially for Boeing’s reissue of the 737 series, is suspected after initial investigation reports as an accident cause.
The faulty warning system is related to the MCAS program. Whether and to what extent the warning system played a decisive role for the crashes, is so far unclear.
