At tense November meeting with Boeing executives, pilots fumed about being left in dark on plane software
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“I’m certain I did say, ‘Well that’s not acceptable,’ ” said Tajer, a leader in the association representing American Airlines pilots.On Wednesday, federal regulators ordered the grounding of the 737 Max 8 and a similar plane, the 737 Max 9, after another crash involving the plane, on this occasion in Ethiopia on Sunday. Many other countries had already acted.
DeFazio cited a concern that has particularly alarmed pilots, the introduction of software that was flagged in the bulletin sent out after the Lion Air crash. But two pilots who attended the meeting with Boeing in November after the Lion Air crash said pilots had suggested that the company take these actions at that time.
The company said it had been working closely with the FAA on the software update and had also been soliciting feedback from airlines that operate the plane. “How can a Captain not know what switch is meant during a preflight setup?” asked another. “Poor training and even poorer documentation; that is how.”
Reputational crisis In its order grounding the planes Wednesday, the FAA said it had received information from the Ethiopian Airlines wreckage “concerning the aircraft’s configuration just after takeoff that, taken together with newly refined data from satellite-based tracking of the aircraft’s flight path, indicates some similarities” between what happened with that flight and the Lion Air flight in Indonesia.
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