FAA Received Whistleblower Calls from Boeing Employees After Second 737 MAX Crash
CNN is reporting that after the crash of Ethiopian Air flight 302 in March, the second deadly crash involving Boeing's 737 MAX in less than six months, the FAA received a number of calls to its whistleblower hotline from Boeing employees about the aircraft.
The complaints were related to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) as well as issues with the actual angle of attack sensor itself. "Among the complaints is a previously unreported issue involving damage to the wiring of the angle of attack sensor by a foreign object," according to a CNN source. "Other reports by the whistleblowers involve concerns about the MCAS control cut-out switches, which disengage the MCAS software." Foreign Object Debris or FOD has been something of a sore spot for Boeing in the recent months.
The FAA told CNN that it "may be opening up an entirely new investigative angle into what went wrong in the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max commercial airliners." The FAA confirmed to TPG via email that it "received four safety hotline calls after the aircraft had already been grounded. The allegations are under investigation and have not been officially substantiated."
Boeing executives said returning the company's troubled 737 MAX to the sky is a "top priority" and pledged to commit all the resources needed to make that happen. The jet was grounded by regulators around the world in March following the second of the two deadly crashes that raised safety concerns about the MAX and shook travelers' confidence in the aircraft.
Boeing did not responded to TPG's request for comment by the time of publication.
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