Boeing Failed to Inform Airlines, FAA About Warning System Change

Boeing is under even more scrutiny after it was revealed the manufacturer never told airlines who purchased its 737 MAX planes that malfunctioning sensors found on earlier models had been deactivated.

According to The Wall Street Journal, government and industry officials investigating Boeing following two deadly crashes involving 737 MAX planes found that Southwest Airlines, other carriers and even the Federal Aviation Administration were not informed of the deactivation of malfunctioning sensors.

MORE Airlines & Airports

Airline and Airport News: Top Air Travel Stories From March

Air Travel Complaints Quadruple From Pre-Pandemic Levels

United Airlines Pledges $15 Million for Sustainable...

The “angle-of-attack vane” sensors typically send data to pilots about the pitch of a plane’s nose, but the lack of the alert system has been linked to the Ethiopian Airlines crash in March and the Lion Air crash last year, which left 346 total people dead.

The malfunctioning sensors were part of an additional safety package an airline would need to pay extra to have operational when purchasing the 737 MAX planes. The aircraft instead came equipped with a new automated stall-prevention system called MCAS.

Officials from Southwest said management teams and cockpit crews did not know about the missing warnings system until 2018, over a year after the planes went into service. Most carriers learned of the issue only after the Lion Air crash in 2018.

Southwest pilots’ union president Jon Weaks said the lack of communication from Boeing resulted in the operation manuals for the plane having wrong information about the sensors.