Max losses spark credibility crisis

摘要

In an otherwise unremarkable first six months, concerns prompted by the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 fatal crash in early March 2019 have dominated the airline safety debate. That accident has generated industry-wide soul-searching, with calls for a re-examination of the way in which today's new aircraft designs are approved. The Ethiopian fatal accident was the second of two unnervingly similar crashes within five months involving the same aircraft type. Both crash sequences were precipitated when a new automated control system operated in an unforeseen manner, according to the initial reports of the respective accident investigators. That this should happen twice in quick succession to new, latest-generation airliners has called into question the efficacy of long-established aircraft certification systems, at the very least as practised in Boeing's home country.