World’s largest airline cancels Boeing 737 Max flights
The world’s largest airline has extended its grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft from early June until mid-August, resulting in the cancellation of 115 flights a day.
American Airlines announced on Monday morning (Australian time) it will be extending flight cancellations through to August 19 because of ongoing problems with the troubled Max jet.
The airline, which flies 24 of the Max craft, said the expanded cancellations represent 1.5 per cent of American’s daily flights this season.
While American Airlines is “highly confident” the aircraft will be recertified prior to August 19, airline executives said they want to ensure reliability “for the peak travel season and provide confidence to our customers and team members when it comes to their travel plans”.
Read the full American Airlines statement here.
Re - the Boeing 737 Max;
Four of my family " including myself " flew back to Cebu - Philippines Oct last year. Not sure whether we flew on Airbus or the 737 Max. If it was the latter, we didn't have any delays or troubles at all. Like many folk, I do really feel for the families who lost dearly loved ones in both recent fatal crashes within two weeks of each other.
Preliminary evidence indicates an autopilot software fault cutting in after take-off during the climbing/reaching cruising altitude phase & thus severly affecting pilot control of the aircraft, when it absolutely shouldn't. Should this prelim finding be declared the definite root cause of the fault, then all Airlines who use this Boeing model are inherently justified in grounding their 737 Max fleets & I congratulate them for putting passenger safety above pure profit.
This then begs a glaring question. At what point during the 737 Max's overall design phase, did this major auto- piloting glich happen? And why was it not identified & subsequently permanently rectified during the " inflight testing regime " that all new relacement aircraft are required by Law to undergo, before they receive any " air-safety, fit to fly " certification?
At this point of investigations, it's patently obvious America's Boeing have big questions to answer on aircraft design, safety & quality assurance re - aircraft construction from nose to tail before such aircraft take to the skies.