FAA Finds New Risk on 737 Max and Orders Boeing to Make Changes

[Recursion]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-26/faa-finds-new-risk-on-737-max-and-orders-boeing-to-make-changes

Tests on Boeing Co.’s grounded 737 Max have revealed a new safety risk unrelated to two fatal crashes that led to the grounding of the aircraft, and U.S. regulators are ordering the company to make additional design changes.

The Federal Aviation Administration discovered that data processing by a flight computer on the jetliner could cause the plane to dive in a way that pilots had difficulty recovering from in simulator tests, according to two people familiar with the finding who asked not to be named to discuss it.

“The FAA recently found a potential risk that Boeing must mitigate,” the agency said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. The statement didn’t provide any specifics.

While the issue didn’t involve the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System linked to the two fatal accidents since October that killed 346 people, it could produce an uncommanded dive similar to what occurred in the crashes, according to one of the people, who wasn’t authorized to speak about the matter.

[SunSeeker]

1. Holy shit. They better not be putting the 737 Max back in service. Ever.

[nitpicker]

2. The fix had its own flaw

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/27/boeing_737_max_control_bug_found/

You're not Boeing to believe this, but... Another deadly 737 Max control bug found

By Shaun Nichols in San Francisco 27 Jun 2019 at 00:04

Yet another deadly and baffling safety flaw has been uncovered in Boeing's 737 Max line of airplanes. The US manufacturer on Wednesday confirmed that, during simulator tests on the embattled jetliners, the 737 Max's new control software would lock up a microprocessor resulting in the plane automatically entering a dangerous nosedive.

It's understood the code that knackered the hardware was part of a firmware update to address deadly flaws in MCAS, the 737 Max's anti-stall tech that wound up killing hundreds of people. That MCAS update is right now being reviewed by America's aviation watchdog, the FAA.
(snip)

[Sherman A1]

3. They need to be scrapped

and Boeing's leadership needs a life filled with lawyers.