Boeing 737 Max Plane Crashes

Boeing 737 Max Crashes: What Went Wrong?

The crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which killed a combined 346 people, led to the worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 Max passenger airliner.

The House investigative report into the crashes blamed the plane manufacturer, Boeing, saying the company had "failed to adequately address known safety risks." The report found that an automated system on the planes, called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), had contributed to the crashes. The MCAS was designed to prevent the planes from stalling, but it could be activated in error, causing the planes to dive.

Boeing has since redesigned the MCAS and made other changes to the 737 Max. The plane was cleared to fly again in the United States in November 2020, and it has since been recertified in other jurisdictions. However, the crashes have raised questions about the safety of the 737 Max and the regulatory process that allowed it to be certified in the first place.