Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Boeing 737 8 MAX

Darabin
Explorer C

2 of these planes have crashed recently due to mechanical malfunction.  

Southwest Airlines has 200 in their fleet.  

Southwest is known for their safety record.  What are they going to do about safety concerns regarding this aircraft?  Can they remove them from their fleet?

21 REPLIES 21

Re: Boeing 737 8 MAX

SWDigits
Aviator A
News of a second MAX 8 crash is terrible.

One note though about the MAX counts in the Southwest fleet. From page 29 of the 2018 Southwest Fourth Quarter - 10K (http://investors.southwest.com/~/media/Files/S/Southwest-IR/2018%2010-K%20Final%20795.pdf) as of December 31, 2018 Southwest operated 750 aircraft, with 31 of the 750 that are the MAX 8 variant. The same page also has a table that indicates the potential for an additional 44 MAX aircraft to join the fleet during 2019.

Customer | Home airport DCA

Re: Boeing 737 8 MAX

dfwskier
Aviator A

@Darabin wrote:

2 of these planes have crashed recently due to mechanical malfunction.  

 

Well, that is not exacty true.

 

1) RE the earlier crash ,on the two flights before the crash, pilots reported a mechanical problem which apparently was not fixed by the mintenance crew. Further, there is a documented fix for the problem -- switch the defective system off -- which the pilots apparently did not do.

 

2) It is too early to know what caused today's Ethiopian crash. No one knows if it was a mechanical malfunction or not. Initial reports seem to indicate the airspeed and altitude characteristics of the Ethiopian plane were different than the earlier one, thus whatever happened appears to have a different cause.

 

Southwest Airlines has 200 in their fleet.  

Southwest is known for their safety record.  What are they going to do about safety concerns regarding this aircraft?  Can they remove them from their fleet?

 

Based on 1 and 2 above, there is no reason to remove the aircraft from the fleet. 


 

Re: Boeing 737 8 MAX

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@dfwskier wrote:

@Darabin wrote:

2 of these planes have crashed recently due to mechanical malfunction.  

 

Well, that is not exacty true.

 

1) RE the earlier crash ,on the two flights before the crash, pilots reported a mechanical problem which apparently was not fixed by the mintenance crew. Further, there is a documented fix for the problem -- switch the defective system off -- which the pilots apparently did not do.

 

2) It is too early to know what caused today's Ethiopian crash. No one knows if it was a mechanical malfunction or not. Initial reports seem to indicate the airspeed and altitude characteristics of the Ethiopian plane were different than the earlier one, thus whatever happened appears to have a different cause.

 

Southwest Airlines has 200 in their fleet.  

Southwest is known for their safety record.  What are they going to do about safety concerns regarding this aircraft?  Can they remove them from their fleet?

 

Based on 1 and 2 above, there is no reason to remove the aircraft from the fleet. 


 


 

The LionAir investigation is not yet complete, so much more will be known when it's final and results are released.

 

It's unknown at this point if the plane was airworthy or not. Previous issues with the angle-of-attack sensor tended to return even after being repaired (the sensor on the LionAir plane was replaced the day before the crash). It's not yet clear that the issue wasn't "repaired" (to existing requirements) prior to the doomed flight.

 

Re: "Documented fix." It's actually quite a bit more complicated than that.

 

Pilots do have the discretion to disable the system prior to flight, but Boeing does not recommend that. Some pilots have stated that they are disabling the system, other's say there's no need to do so. The Boeing directive issued following the crash doesn’t call for operators to conduct new inspections or take other action. It merely stressed that pilots should follow procedures in the flight manual when encountering erroneous data. Boeing has said they will issue a software update for the system, but that hasn't happened yet. It's very unlikely that the Ethopian pilots were not aware of the directive, so it's unlikely they didn't respond as Boeing suggested. But we really just don't yet know.

 

 

 

 

Re: Boeing 737 8 MAX

gdrj
Explorer C

As others noted SWA doesnt have 200 Max in their fleet.  With that said as a flier it still is a concern.  

I am hopeful that NTSB, Boeing, and airlines look to address ASAP to determine if causes are related, and what is being done to address quickly.  You can check to see what equipment is scheduled to be used on upcoming flight.   Hope that the answers are available quickly and resolution if equipment/software that has been rumored as potentially being involved NTSB issues Bulletin 

 

Re: Boeing 737 8 MAX

chgoflyer
Aviator A

While it's too early to know if the causes of these crashes are related, there are many initial similarities, and it does seem a real possibility that something is wrong with 737 Max aircraft. 348 planes now flying worldwide since the 2017 introduction and two major, 100% fatality hull-loss crashes within a few months to nearly brand new aircraft. That's an amazing statistic, and one that will no doubt get the attention of regulators. As carriers balance risk vs cost they'll likely push hard against grounding these planes, but hopefully those in charge will assess the potential risk and act appropriately.

Re: Boeing 737 8 MAX

Rblum100
Explorer C

Both accidents occurred in the same phase of flight (takeoff/departure) and involved the same type of aircraft.   

If the data recorder shows the same type of anomaly, I hope that Southwest grounds the planes before an emergency order is issued.

 

The data recorder will tell a lot. In the interim, I think it appropriate for Southwest to direct that all departures be hand flown.  

Re: Boeing 737 8 MAX

chgoflyer
Aviator A

Re: Boeing 737 8 MAX

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@Rblum100 wrote:

Both accidents occurred in the same phase of flight (takeoff/departure) and involved the same type of aircraft.   

If the data recorder shows the same type of anomaly, I hope that Southwest grounds the planes before an emergency order is issued.

 

The data recorder will tell a lot. In the interim, I think it appropriate for Southwest to direct that all departures be hand flown.  


 

737s are generally "hand flown" during takeoff. The system possibly responsible for the LionAir crash activates automatically (possibly due to incorrect sensor data or some other malfunction) even when the plane is being flown manually. In fact, the MCAS system only activates when "auto pilot" is disengaged.

 

I suspect many more pilots will now be  disabling the system proactively (even though this is against Boeing's recommendations.)

Re: Boeing 737 8 MAX

Scooterb
Explorer C

As a customer with a flight next Monday- how do I check to see if the equipment scheduled to service my route the 737 8 Max model?   I’m more curious than concerned 


@Darabin wrote:

2 of these planes have crashed recently due to mechanical malfunction.  

Southwest Airlines has 200 in their fleet.  

Southwest is known for their safety record.  What are they going to do about safety concerns regarding this aircraft?  Can they remove them from their fleet?