American Airlines Pilots Say Boeing Must Upgrade New 737 Max Cockpits
The union for pilots at American Airlines says Congress shouldn’t give Boeing an exemption to keep older-style cockpit alerting systems on new variants of 737 Max jets.
Chicago-based Boeing has pushed to keep the same cockpit alarm systems in new 737 Max variants, even getting Congress to pass a two-year exemption in late 2020 to a modernization requirement. Boeing says it should be allowed to keep one common cockpit system on all 737 planes, even with the 737 Max 7 and 737 Max 10 variants that are in the Federal Aviation Administration certification process.
Without more time, Boeing may be forced to redesign the cockpit alert systems.
“Boeing needs to proceed with installing modern crew alerting systems on these aircraft to mitigate pilot startle-effect and confusion during complex, compound system malfunctions,” said Allied Pilots Association president Capt. Edward Sicher in a statement. “Once these systems are installed and pilots have been properly trained on them, our crews will be better able to identify system failures and prioritize corrective actions that could save lives.”
The exemption expires in December, and if Boeing is unable to get approval for the two planes by then, it may be forced to redesign the cockpits with different systems. Last week, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., proposed legislation to give an extension, The Seattle Times reported.
Boeing did not respond to a request for comment.
Boeing has pushed to make the 737 Max as similar as possible in the cockpit for pilots since its inception, a move blamed in part for crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019 that killed 346 people. Those crashes grounded 737 Max jets worldwide.
During a scathing Congressional and federal investigation, it was revealed that Boeing pushed engineers and regulators to approve that jet under the older 737 Model certificate to avoid paying penalties to airline customers for any extra required training for pilots. Boeing was forced to pay $2.5 billion in penalties for its role in deceiving regulators and airlines and as compensation to family members of victims. In September, Boeing was fined $200 million by financial regulators for deceiving investors.
No one has been held criminally accountable for the 737 Max crisis.
The Boeing 737 line is Fort Worth-based American Airlines’ most prolific aircraft type, with 311 in its fleet to start the year. That included 42 of the 737 Max jets.
“We oppose any extension of the exemption and don’t agree with Boeing’s claim that pilots could become confused when moving from an airplane without the modern alert system to one that is equipped with it. Nothing could be further from our flight deck reality,” Sicher said. “Consider the Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 — they’re substantially different airplanes yet operate under a single certificate. Pilots have routinely flown both on the same day without any confusion.”
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines is the world’s largest 737 Max operator with 728 jets. Southwest was also slated to get as many as 632 Boeing 737 Max 7 and 737 Max 8 jets by 2031. However, 114 of those 737 Max 7 jets were supposed to be delivered this year, which now seems unlikely.
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