An internal FAA analysis after the first Boeing 737 Max crash found a high likelihood of future crashes. However, regulators decided to let the plane continue flying.
The November, 2018 internal review was discussed by the House Rep. Peter DeFazio during a transportation committee hearing on Wednesday. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The analysis reportedly found that without design changes, a 737 Max plane could be expected to crash every two to three years, The Journal reported. That was a substantially greater risk than Boeing or the FAA had indicated publicly.
The assessment raises additional questions about how the 737 Max was initially certified, and allowed to continue flying after the first crash, Lion Air Flight 610 in Indonesia. Less than five months later, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed.
“I don’t know why this airplane wasn’t grounded after the analysis was done,” Rep. Peter DeFazio said.
The FAA issued an emergency Airworthiness Directive about runaway trim stabilization control on the 737 Max after the first crash, but it did not discuss the automated system behind the crashes, known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), or highlight the FAA’s risk assessment.
The FAA projected as many as 15 similar catastrophic incidents globally over the life of the global 737 Max fleet, Rep. DeFazio said, unless fixes including the software changes Boeing has reportedly made, were implemented.
