Boeing is warning 737 Max customers about erroneous cockpit readings

Boeing
test pilot Jim Webb gives a thumbs-up from the cockpit of a 737
MAX 7 at Boeing Field, on March 16, 2018 in Seattle, Washington,
after completing the plane’s first flight. The aircraft is the
shortest variant of fuel efficient MAX family.
Stephen Brashear/Getty Images

• Boeing is preparing to send a warning to all the
  operators that have taken delivery of its new 737 Max aircraft,
  according to an anonymous source cited by Bloomberg.
• Exhibiting similar problems, a recently delivered
  Lion Air Boeing 737 Max 8 passenger plane crashed into the
  sea off Jakarta, Indonesia almost two weeks ago with 189 people
  onboard.
• The warning comes as Indonesia’s transport ministry has
  scheduled a briefing to share the latest information on the
  Lion Air tragedy.

Boeing is reportedly preparing a bulletin to all operators of the
new 737 model warning that erroneous readings from a
flight-monitoring system can cause the planes to aggressively
dive, Bloomberg quoted a person familiar with the matter.

Boeing will caution its customers of “erroneous readings”
from a flight-monitoring system can cause the planes to abruptly
dive, Bloomberg quoted an anonymous source as saying.

Boeing will also warn pilots to follow an existing
procedure to handle the problem.

The bulletin is being prepared based on preliminary findings from
the crash of one of the planes off the coast of Indonesia, said
the person, who asked not to be named discussing the inquiry.

According to a company statement as of
September 30
, Boeing had 4,783 firm orders from
98 identified customers for the 737 Max.

According to Bloomberg there are over 200 737 Max jets
already in use in commercial aviation.

Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas told Business Insider that
Boeing has around 9,000 737s in the sky at any given time.

Representatives of 737 Max operators, Singapore
Airlines offshoot SilkAir, Garuda Indonesia and Canada’s
WestJet, said they had not yet received a bulletin from Boeing,
Reuters reports.

Data from the black box of the Lion Air 737 Max that fell
into the sea with 189 people onboard has confirmed there was an
issue with the plane’s airspeed indicator.

Soerjanto Tjahjono, the head of Indonesia’s National
Transportation Safety Committee, said on Monday that the flight
data recorder from the crashed plane shows that the problem
occurred in its last four flights, including the fatal flight on
October 29.

Without an accurate airspeed reading, planes are at serious risk
of crashing. Jets flying too slowly can stall, and ones
accelerating too much can tear themselves apart from the force.

A faulty airspeed instrument was a factor
in the
loss of Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the
Atlantic Ocean on its way from Brazil to Paris in 2009.

The Lion Air 737 Max 8 speared into the coastal waters off Java
on Oct. 29, just 13 minutes after takeoff.

Bloomberg says the plane’s velocity was uncharacteristically
high, possibly touching speeds of 600 miles an hour as it hit the
water.

Certainly, Indonesian search and rescue officials had trouble
locating the wreck, despite encountering a large amount of
wreckage in the four days leading up to the discovery of the
fuselage.

Flight JT610 radioed a request to return to Jakarta to land, but
never turned back toward the airport, according to Indonesia’s
National Transportation Safety Committee.

The committee has said they were dealing with an “erroneous
airspeed indication.”

Indonesia’s transport ministry has scheduled a briefing at 12:30
p.m. in Jakarta on Wednesday to share updated information on the
Lion Air accident, Bloomberg reports.