The Boeing 737 MAX air crash report was released to expose serious problems in U.S. aviation regulation. The


　　U.S. House of Representatives reported that the crash was caused by "a series of serious mistakes made by Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration."

Data map: Southwest Airlines' Boeing 737 MAX series aircraft.

　　After 18 months of investigating and interviewing more than 20 Boeing and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, and analyzing nearly 600,000 pages of documents and records, the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee issued a 238-page document. Investigation report.

In response to the two crashes of Boeing 737 MAX series aircraft, the report directly pointed out that Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration had serious problems.

　　On September 16, local time, the US House of Representatives released an investigation report on two accidents involving Boeing 737 MAX series aircraft.

The report stated that the crash was caused by "a series of serious mistakes" made by Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Boeing puts its own interests above public safety and is under the supervision of the Federal Aviation Administration. The system has serious problems.

　　In October 2018, Indonesian Lion Air flight JT610 crashed about 12 minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board.

Less than half a year later, in March 2019, Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 crashed about 6 minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board.

It was the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that caused the innocent deaths of these 346 people.

After two air crashes, Boeing 737 MAX series aircraft were grounded globally.

　Boeing conceals design flaws, FAA's weak supervision

　　According to the New York Times, after 18 months of investigating and interviewing more than 20 Boeing and FAA employees, and analyzing nearly 600,000 pages of document records, the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee issued a 238-page document. Investigation report.

　　The report pointed out that in the two air crashes of the Lion Air plane crash in Indonesia in October 2018 and the Ethiopian Airlines flight crash in March 2019, Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration had errors.

The two air crashes were "not caused by a single mechanical failure, technical error or improper management", but "boeing engineers wrong technical assumptions, Boeing's lack of transparency in management, and serious inadequate supervision by the Federal Aviation Administration." ".

　　Investigators pointed out that Boeing knew that the 737 MAX had design flaws, but deliberately concealed relevant information from airlines, pilots, and regulators, and affected the management and review of regulators through commercial relationships.

As a regulatory agency, the FAA "severely lacks approval and supervision of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft" and urgently requires thorough reform.

According to the report, "Boeing has defects in the design and update of MAX models, while the FAA is absent from Boeing's supervision and certification of new models."

　　The report also pointed out that after the crash, Boeing was still reluctant to admit its mistakes, and there was a "bad cultural problem."

During the investigation, some Boeing employees suffered "excessive pressure."

The report describes Boeing as a company that puts corporate interests above public safety, saying that Boeing deliberately ignores the problem, either because it feels that the problem is irrelevant, or that it will affect the progress of research and development, and hopes to cut expenses to push the 737 MAX as soon as possible. market.

　　The chairman of the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Democratic Congressman Pete de Fazio said, "These tragedies should not have occurred" and "These could have been prevented. We will take legislative steps to ensure that these things never happen again." .

　　Republican members of the committee did not issue an independent report, but they also called for improved security.

Sam Graves, the highest-ranking Republican on the committee, believes that changes are indeed needed, but legislative action should be taken based on expert recommendations.

　Boeing responds to lessons learned and is still pushing for a go-around

　　According to Reuters, on September 16, Boeing responded in writing to this report from the House of Representatives.

Boeing said in a statement, "As a company, we have learned many painful lessons from the accidents of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and the mistakes we made."

　　The statement stated that since the beginning of 2019, Boeing has conducted comprehensive and extensive cooperation with the House of Representatives investigation team, stating that "we have been working hard to strengthen our safety culture and rebuild trust with customers, regulators and passengers."

　　In addition, Boeing stated that the revised design of the 737 MAX has undergone rigorous review by internal and regulatory agencies, including more than 375,000 engineering and testing time and 1,300 test flights.

The statement said, “Once the Federal Aviation Administration and other regulatory agencies determine that the 737 MAX can be safely re-commissioned, it will become one of the most rigorous aircraft in history. Boeing is confident in its safety” and hopes to promote the 737 MAX. Go around before the end of this year.

FAA says it will work with Congress to implement improvements

　　Regarding the issues identified in the House of Representatives investigation report, the FAA said in a statement that the agency will cooperate with members of Congress to "implement the improvement measures mentioned in the report."

The agency also stated that it will "improve our organization, processes and concepts to comprehensively improve aviation safety."

In the survey report, lawmakers put forward a series of reform proposals to restructure the FAA's aviation qualification supervision.

　　According to US media CNBC, the House of Representatives report accused the FAA of failing to protect the safety of public travel, partly because the agency granted Boeing excessive self-certification rights.

　　The FAA's response to the crash has also been severely criticized.

According to the report, in December last year, FAA Deputy Director of Aviation Safety Ali Bahrami told the investigation team that he was unaware of the internal assessment made after the first crash.

The assessment report pointed out that if MCAS is not amended, there may be more than 15 plane crashes.

In addition, the report stated that the FAA was also "very slow" in handing in materials.

　　Democrat Pete Defazio, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told reporters, “The FAA is actually more frustrating than Boeing. I’m not even sure if we have all the mail records we want. They claim to have them. Very old computer system".

　　According to Reuters, the Senate Commerce Committee originally planned to vote on an FAA reform bill on September 16, but it was later postponed.

The bill will give the FAA some new powers, establish a new whistleblower protection system, strengthen misconduct investigations and disciplinary management, and require a review of the professionalism of FAA qualification certification.

　　Rick Larson, chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee, said, "We are working closely with Republicans and hope to reach agreement on FAA reform proposals as soon as possible."

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Boeing employees raised concerns but were ignored

　　In March 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft was banned from flying around the world after two air crashes occurred in less than half a year and caused 346 deaths. It has been 18 months since then.

　　The occurrence of the two air crashes exposed the design flaws of the Boeing 737 MAX, especially a critical safety system called MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Enhancement System).

MCAS is also known as the stall prevention system. The original design is to ensure that the aircraft can automatically lower its nose when there is a risk of stalling.

The investigation report of the US House of Representatives pointed out that, in fact, Boeing internal employees had raised concerns about MCAS before, but their opinions were either ignored or did not receive an appropriate response.

　　In the past year and a half, Boeing has been updating and testing the MCAS system, hoping to pass the review as soon as possible to achieve a return to flight.

However, the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States has requested that before the 737 MAX is put into use again, MCAS needs to take new safety protection measures.

　　The global grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX for one and a half years has caused huge losses to Boeing. Coupled with this year's new crown pneumonia epidemic, the global aviation industry has fallen into a predicament. Boeing is facing the biggest crisis in history.

Not only that, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has recently been found to have quality problems, which may cause delays in the delivery of this model, which undoubtedly makes Boeing worse.

　　Boeing said on September 8 that the company's 787 Dreamliner (787 Dreamliner) horizontal tail produced in Salt Lake City has quality problems, which may cause delays in the delivery of the 787 Dreamliner.

According to reports, of the 982 787 Dreamliners delivered, approximately 893 were affected by this issue.

　　This problem is another blow to Boeing.

Reuters pointed out that the aviation manufacturing giant originally hoped to use the 787 Dreamliner to make up for the tight cash flow caused by the massive cancellation of orders for the 737 MAX.

　　Beijing News reporter Xie Lian