Boeing pilots' messages on 737 MAX safety raise new
questions
Send a link to a friend
[October 19, 2019] By
David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Boeing Co senior
pilot said he might have unintentionally misled regulators, in a series
of internal messages from 2016 that became public Friday, plunging the
world's largest airplane maker into a fresh crisis.
The messages, first reported by Reuters, sent Boeing shares tumbling,
prompted a demand by U.S. regulators for an immediate explanation, and a
new call in Congress for Boeing to shake up its management as it
continues to grapple with the fallout from two fatal crashes that have
grounded its fastest-selling plane.
In a transcript of instant messages between two employees, the 737 MAX's
then-chief technical pilot, Mark Forkner, said the so-called MCAS
anti-stall system in the airplane was "running rampant" in a flight
simulator session. The system has been tied to the crashes in Indonesia
and Ethiopia that together killed 346 people.
The messages, which sources provided to Reuters, appear to be the first
publicly known observations that MCAS behaved erratically during testing
before the aircraft entered service. (https://tmsnrt.rs/2OZl4Ic)
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered Boeing Chief Executive
Dennis Muilenburg to give an "immediate" explanation for the delay in
turning over the "concerning" document which Boeing discovered some
months ago.
The fresh discovery came days before Muilenburg, who was stripped of his
chairman title by the board last week, is due to testify before
Congress.
"These messages indicate that Boeing withheld damning information from
the FAA, which is highly disturbing," Peter DeFazio, Chair of the U.S.
House of Representatives transportation committee, wrote in a letter to
U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao on Friday.
The FAA said it "is reviewing this information to determine what action
is appropriate."
A person briefed on the matter said Boeing failed to turn over the
documents to the FAA for four months and that the Justice Department is
also in possession of the messages.
Boeing said on Friday that Muilenburg had called FAA Administrator Steve
Dickson to respond to the concerns raised in his letter and assured him
that the company "is taking every step possible to safely return the MAX
to service."
It said it had produced the document containing a former Boeing
employee's statements to the appropriate investigating authority earlier
this year, and brought it to the attention of the Department of
Transportation on Thursday.
Boeing has been cooperating with the House of Representatives
Transportation & Infrastructure Committee's probe into the 737 MAX and
will continue to do so in investigations by U.S. authorities, the
company said.
Boeing turned the documents over to the U.S. Department of Justice and
the FBI in February, one source said.
Federal prosecutors aided by the FBI, the Department of Transportation's
inspector general and several blue-ribbon panels are investigating the
737 MAX's certification. And the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee
confirmed it will question Muilenburg at an Oct. 29 hearing, one day
before a House of Representatives panel is scheduled to question him.
The 737 MAX has been grounded worldwide since March, forcing more than
100 daily flight cancellations at large U.S operators of the aircraft
such as Southwest Airlines Co and American Airlines, and eroding their
profits.
Boeing has said the grounding has already cost it at least $8 billion.
[to top of second column] |
Unpainted Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are seen parked in an aerial photo
at Renton Municipal Airport near the Boeing Renton facility in
Renton, Washington, U.S. July 1, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson
Its shares fell 6.8% to close at $344.00, before edging up 1.4% after hours.
'I BASICALLY LIED'
Forkner said in one text message, "I basically lied to the regulators
(unknowingly)." The other employee responded that "it wasn't a lie, no one told
us that was the case" of an issue with MCAS.
Forkner responded soon after: "Granted I suck at flying, but even this was
egregious." At one point Forkner said "there are still some real fundamental
issues" in the simulator.
In the exchange, Forkner said he was writing while "drinking icy cold gray
goose."
"If you read the whole chat, it is obvious that there was no 'lie,'" Forkner's
lawyer David Gerger said by email on Friday.
"The simulator was not reading right and had to be fixed to fly like the real
plane. Mark's career – at Air Force, at FAA, and at Boeing – was about safety.
And based on everything he knew, he absolutely thought this plane was safe."
Forkner and his colleague allude to technical problems with the simulator
itself, which one former Boeing test pilot said may have contributed in some way
to Forkner's observations and conclusions of MCAS' behavior.
In a separate batch of emails, released by the FAA on Friday, Forkner said in
November 2016 that he was working on "jedi-mind tricking regulators into
accepting the training that I got accepted by FAA."
DeFazio, the House committee chair, said such "tricks and boasting" indicates
"improper coziness between the regulator and the regulated."
Forkner is no longer employed by Boeing. The Seattle Times reported in September
that he repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right to not turn over documents
subpoenaed by the Justice Department.
The FAA reiterated that it is "following a thorough process, not a prescribed
timeline, for returning the Boeing 737 MAX to passenger service. The agency will
lift the grounding order only after we have determined the aircraft is safe."
Boeing has been revising the 737 MAX software as part of its efforts to win
fresh approval for the jet to fly again.
Southwest, the world's largest operators of the 737 MAX, said in a statement it
had been unaware of the messages but continued to work with the FAA and Boeing
to safely return the aircraft to service.
The Southwest pilots union, which has filed a lawsuit against Boeing for lost
wages during the grounding, said in a statement that the document was "more
evidence that Boeing misled pilots, government regulators and other aviation
experts about the safety of the 737 MAX."
"As pilots, we have to be able to trust Boeing to truthfully disclose the
information we need to safely operate our aircraft. In the case of the 737 MAX,
that absolutely did not happen," Southwest Airlines Pilots Association President
Jon Weaks said.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Tracy Rucinski in
Chicago and Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Richard Chang and Daniel
Wallis)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |