- Title: 737 MAX could return to service this quarter, says Boeing CEO Muilenburg
- Date: 2nd October 2019
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 2, 2019) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** BOEING CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT, AND CEO, DENNIS MUILENBURG, APPROACHING MICROPHONE (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOEING CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT, AND CEO, DENNIS MUILENBURG, SAYING: "The investigations into the Lion Air flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 accidents are ongoing. And while the investigations have not yet issued their final reports, they have shared preliminary findings. The early information established that in both flights a software function activated in response to incorrect information from an external airplane sensor as part of a broader chain of events. This created more workload for the pilots in what was already a high workload environment." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOEING CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT, AND CEO, DENNIS MUILENBURG, SAYING: "Looking forward, we continue to target regulatory approval for the 737 MAX return to service this quarter, though it's the FAA, and other global regulators, who will ultimately determine the timeline." MODERATOR ASKING QUESTION (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOEING CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT, AND CEO, DENNIS MUILENBURG, SAYING: "I can also tell you that we have looked deeply at the MAX, and its design, and the processes over the last year, and the software update, we have extraordinary confidence in. As I said, we've flown 700 test flights with that software, dozens and dozens of simulations with customers. But, in addition to the updates to the airplane, which add redundancy to make it even safer, we're also working up updated training packages for pilots and maintainers. So, it's a holistic solution that will give us all confidence that this airplane will be one of the safest ever to fly." MUILENBURG SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOEING CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT, AND CEO, DENNIS MUILENBURG, SAYING: "There's a software function that I mentioned in my comments that many of you have seen in the press, it's called MCAS. It's a maneuvering characteristics augmentation system, but it's a piece of software that enhances the feel of the airplane in the pilot's hands. And that software was erroneously activated by bad data coming into the airplane. So the software update we've made adds triple redundancies to that software, one that requires two sensor feeds, instead of a single. Secondly, it can only operate once instead of multiple times during a flight. And, thirdly, we've reduced its control power. And, so, with those three redundancies built in, so, I said we've flown that new software more than 700 times. I personally flown with it a couple of times. We are very confident in that software solution, and we are now just marching through the final steps on certifying that so that everybody's confident in the safety of the airplane." MUILENBURG SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOEING CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT, AND CEO, DENNIS MUILENBURG, SAYING: "We're building and getting ready to launch what we called a CST-100 Starliner. That'll be a vehicle that will operate in low-Earth orbit. Low-Earth orbit is about from surface of the Earth to 300 miles up. First launch of that vehicle is later this year. We expect, ultimately, that will grow into a commercial low-Earth orbit business. But to Mars, we're also working with NASA on the first rocket to Mars. So, space launch system - it's called the The Artemis mission, sister of Apollo - and we are building that first rocket now, it's in rocket stack. We'll have first test flight next year. And I firmly believe that the first human that steps on Mars will get there on that rocket. And we're building it today with NASA." MUILENBURG SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOEING CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT, AND CEO DENNIS MUILENBURG, SAYING: "The single biggest airplane market outside of the U.S. is China. And of those 44,000 new airplanes, about 7,700 will be in China. So a productive trade relationship is important to us. It's also important to the U.S. economy. Those airplanes that we sell to China, about one out of every four airplanes that comes off our production line, goes to China. Those are built in the U.S. About 90% of our manufacturing jobs are in the U.S. So there's a strong reason for the U.S. to want a healthy trade relationship when it comes to aerospace because of the trade surplus it generates here in the U.S. And talk of trade deficits these days, aerospace is the biggest trade surplus generator to the tune of about $90 billion a year." MUILENBURG LEAVING
- Embargoed: 16th October 2019 20:47
- Keywords: 737 MAX Boeing Chairman President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg crash software China trade 737NG
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Company News Markets,Economic Events
- Reuters ID: LVA001AZEP6PZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said he hopes to return the 737 MAX to service this quarter.
"Though it's the FAA, and other global regulators, who will ultimately determine the timeline," he added speaking at the Economic Club of New York on Wednesday (October 2).
Muilenburg said the plane has undergone 700 test flights with updated software, and Boeing is training its crews to operate it.
Muilenburg has agreed to testify before Congress on October 30 on the fatal crashes of a Lion Air 737 MAX in Indonesia in October of 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX five months later that killed a total of 346 people. The crashes led to the plane's grounding and raised questions about the FAA's certification of the new aircraft.
His comments came hours before the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said that aircraft operators must inspect 165 Boeing 737 NG airplanes for structural cracks within seven days after the issue was found on a small number of planes.
Boeing notified the FAA of the issue after it discovered structural cracks on an aircraft undergoing modifications in China. The FAA said subsequent inspections found similar cracks in a small number of additional planes.
The order covers a total of 1,911 U.S. registered planes. The inspections can be done visually and should require about an hour per airplane, the FAA said.
Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and American Airlines are among carriers that fly the 737 NG.
In the wide-ranging conversation in Manhattan, Muilenburg touched on Boeing's low-Earth orbit CST-100 Starliner and a rocket it is building with NASA to travel to Mars as well as concerns about U.S. trade agreements with China.
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