FAA Flags Warning-Light Problem with 737 MAX
February 06 2020 - 3:41PM
Dow Jones News
By Benjamin Katz and Andrew Tangel
LONDON -- Boeing Co. needs to resolve a new software glitch as
part of its work to get the 737 MAX recertified for flight, the
head of the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The plane maker discovered an issue that affects a warning light
associated with a mechanism on the tail that moves the plane's nose
up and down, FAA chief Stephen Dickson told reporters in London on
Thursday.
It is the latest in a series of technical issues that have come
up during efforts to get the aircraft recertified. The MAX has been
grounded globally since March 2019, following the second of two
fatal crashes that together killed 346 people. Boeing halted
production of the aircraft in January after several delays to the
recertification timeline.
Mr. Dickson said the latest matter will need to be resolved
before Boeing can proceed to a certification flight, the next major
milestone in efforts to get the aircraft back into service. That
test is expected to take place in the next few weeks, Mr. Dickson
said, depending on Boeing's ability to resolve the issue with the
warning light.
Boeing confirmed the problem with the indicator light and said
it didn't expect a fix would upend its latest forecast for U.S.
regulators to approve the MAX for commercial service by the middle
of this year.
A Boeing spokesman said the problem emerged during testing of
the aircraft's latest software update. He said the alert's
unintended illumination stemmed from differing input data between
the plane's two flight-control computers, which will work in unison
as part of a previously planned fix to the system.
"We are incorporating a change to the 737 MAX software prior to
the fleet returning to service to ensure that this indicator light
only illuminates as intended," the spokesman said. Boeing said it
notified the FAA of the problem during the week of Jan. 20.
The spokesman said Boeing had completed its work to fix another
glitch Mr. Dickson mentioned on Thursday, related to the powering
up of the MAX flight-control computers.
Boeing has yet to present fixes for a separate, previously
reported wiring issue, Mr. Dickson said, adding that the issue
doesn't necessarily need to be resolved for the certification
flight to proceed.
The FAA and European Union Aviation Safety Agency had disagreed
on whether the wiring needs to be fixed before the aircraft can
return to service, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Dickson
said the FAA and EASA were closely aligned on the MAX certification
process.
Write to Benjamin Katz at ben.katz@wsj.com and Andrew Tangel at
Andrew.Tangel@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 06, 2020 15:26 ET (20:26 GMT)
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