Boeing 737 allowed to fly after first deadly crash despite FAA concerns
The Boeing 737 MAX was allowed to stay in the air after its initial deadly crash even though the Federal Aviation Administration's own analysis showed it could be extremely accident-prone, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The November 2018 analysis was referenced Wednesday during a congressional hearing on the 737 MAX with testimony from FAA chief Steve Dickson.
FAA CHIEF TO TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS ON GROUNDED 737 MAX
The Journal's analysis found that FAA's projections about 737 MAX accidents made the planes more likely to crash than many earlier Boeing aircraft without software changes. The FAA predicted up to 15 accidents like the fatal Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes over the next 45 years.
That approximates to one fatal crash occurring every two or three years, a risk that would be much more catastrophic than Boeing or FAA let on at the time, according to The Journal.
The FAA pushed back against the idea that it didn't take the accidents seriously enough in a statement to FOX Business, stressing that the agency issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive a week after the Lion Air crash that killed 189 people.
"On March 12, the agency completed a subsequent TARAM that considered the most likely scenario for the 737 MAX accident in Ethiopia," the statement said. "The accident investigation team also worked overnight to collect and analyze satellite data that might corroborate the hypothesis while investigators provided additional information from the accident site.
"The FAA acted immediately to ground the aircraft on March 13 after verifying the satellite data, which was reinforced by evidence from the crash site," according to FAA's statement.
"It was clear from the beginning that an unsafe condition existed," an FAA spokesman told The Journal on Tuesday, adding that the 2018 analysis "provided additional context in helping determine the mitigation action."
Analyses like the one in question often overstate risk just to be safe, the spokesman told The Journal.
The 737 Max was grounded after two deadly crashes. The first crash involved a Lion Air flight from Jakarta, Indonesia, which left 189 people dead in October 2018. Then an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed and killed all 157 people on board in March.
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The U.S. was not the first country to ground the jet when it did so in March. Countries including China, Ireland, the United Kingdom and all of Europe either suspended use of the aircraft or banned the planes from their airspace before the U.S. made the call.
FOX Business' inquiries to Boeing were not returned at the time of publication.
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