Boeing admits mistakes made with new system linked to 346 deaths
  • 4 years ago
The CEO of Boeing has conceded in a U.S. Senate hearing that the company made mistakes with the computer system installed in its 737 Max model.
Amid confusion in the airline industry, Korea said it'll speed up inspections on some of the faulty Boeing planes.
Kim Ji-yeon reports.
In a Senate hearing held Tuesday, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg admitted that the company failed to give pilots more information about its new Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System before the crashes.
The system is linked to two deadly crashes of the Boeing 737 Max model, the first one last October, that resulted in 346 deaths.
He also acknowledged that it took months to disclose a fault in the MCAS system despite Muilenburg being notified about it before the second crash in March.
"Mr. Chairman, so I recall, I was made aware of that message earlier this year. It was discovered as part of a document gathering process in response to a government investigation."
The airline industry is on high alert after Boeing decided last month to also halt operations of another, older version of the 737, the Next Generation model, ... due to cracks in a critical part.
As of last Thursday, the company had inspected more than 11-hundred of them after it was notified by operators worldwide, and found nearly 5 percent of them had faults.
For the same reason, Korea immediately halted operations of nine of the 42 planes it had inspected.
Following an emergency safety inspection meeting held Wednesday... the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it plans to conduct an inspection of the airplanes in question operating in Korea.
The ministry said it plans to complete the inspection of 22 out of 108 Next Generation planes by next month... instead of the initial five-month period.
It plans to speed up inspections of the remaining ones as well.
Kim Ji-yeon, Arirang News.
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