Following the recent crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia, Boeing is currently cutting production of its best-selling 737 airliner.
Boeing said in a recent statement that monthly production of planes will drop from 52 to 42 from mid-April. The model involved in the two accidents — 737 Max — triggered the recent decision to halt that specific model.
A lot of countries, however, have banned the plane as a result of its failure. Narrowing the reason for the crashes to the fault of the anti-stall system’s malfunctioning.
Just six minutes after the Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max took off, it crashed, killing 157 people on board.
The same model which was also flown by the Indonesian Airline Lion Air crashed into the sea just five months ago, and not too long after take-off from Jakarta, killing a total of 189 people.
In preliminary findings, the issue causing the planes to nose-dive repeatedly was that the pilots had wrestled with the anti-stall system known as the MCAS.
Here’s what Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg said in response to the tragic incidents,
“We now know that the recent Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 accidents were caused by a chain of events, with a common chain link being erroneous activation of the aircraft’s MCAS function. We have the responsibility to eliminate this risk, and we know how to do it.
“As we continue to work through these steps, we’re adjusting the 737 production system temporarily to accommodate the pause in Max deliveries, allowing us to prioritise additional resources to focus on software certification and returning the Max to flight.”