Passengers look out at American Airlines flight 718, a Boeing 737 Max, parked at its gate at Miami International Airport as people load for the flight to New York on December 29, 2020 in Miami, Florida. The Boeing 737 Max flew its first commercial flight since the aircraft was allowed to return to service nearly two years after being grounded worldwide following a pair of separate crashes. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) MARANA, ARIZONA - MAY 16: Decommissioned and suspended jetBlue commercial aircrafts are seen stored in Pinal Airpark on May 16, 2020 in Marana, Arizona. Pinal Airpark is the largest commercial aircraft storage facility in the world, currently holding increased numbers of aircraft in response to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) Hayden A. Smith, 17, is a plane spotter and photographer and took this photo of UAL Flight 328 on Saturday, February 20, as it flew overhead in Aurora, Colorado. ATLANTA - APRIL 30: A Boeing 757 with a new Delta Airlines logo sits on the tarmac following the company's emergence from bankruptcy at Hartsfield Jackson International Airport April 30,2007 in Atlanta, Georgia. The 757 sports new branding that will appear on more than 900 planes, at airports and on advertising. (Photo by Barry Williams/Getty Images) 757 Delta CEO: The goal is for a good summer in the US JetBlue CEO on when tickets to London will be available MARANA, ARIZONA - MAY 16: Decommissioned and suspended jetBlue commercial aircrafts are seen stored in Pinal Airpark on May 16, 2020 in Marana, Arizona. Pinal Airpark is the largest commercial aircraft storage facility in the world, currently holding increased numbers of aircraft in response to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) RENTON, WA - JANUARY 29: A Boeing 737 MAX 8 airliner lifts off for its first flight on January 29, 2016 in Renton, Washington. The 737 MAX is the newest of Boeing's most popular airliner featuring more fuel efficient engines and redesigned wings. (Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images) (CNN Business) — Boeing’s future rides on the success of the 737 Max. But all of those planes remain grounded, waiting for the world’s aviation regulators to approve a software fix that will make them safer to fly. The 737 Max does not appear close to flying again. Aviation experts doubt global regulators will act in concert to approve the 737 Max for flight, because serious questions remain about how and why the FAA approved the 737 Max for flight and whether it rushed the certification process. The world’s aviation authorities have lost confidence in the US Federal Aviation Administration. In the past when planes were grounded, other regulators followed the FAA’s lead. When the FAA approved grounded planes to fly again, regulators around the world similarly let them fly too. That’s what happened when the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was grounded because of battery problems in 2013. But this time, getting the FAA to sign off on the fix won’t by itself solve Boeing (BA)’s problems. That could be troubling news for Boeing (BA) as it tries to return the planes to service as soon as possible. The 737 Max is by far Boeing’s bestselling plane, with orders for 5,000 of the workhorse single aisle jet on its books. Boeing’s profit fell 21% last quarter because it halted 737 Max orders during grounding, and it has to reimburse airlines that have to use alternate planes. Boeing has already spent at least $1 billion on a software fix it hopes can get the planes back in the air. The stakes could not be higher for the company, America’s largest exporter. Damaged credibility Boeing is seeking regulatory approval for its software fix a 737 Max automatic safety feature, which is the focus of the investigations into two recent fatal crashes. Questions about how the plane was certified in the first place means lifting the grounding won’t be easy. The FAA’s certification process is under investigation by Congress and the Department of Transportation. “Clearly confidence in the FAA as the gold standard in aviation safety has been shaken,” DOT Inspector General Calvin Scovel testified at a Senate hearing last month. If global aviation regulators don’t agree to end the 737 Max’s grounding, that could create costly delays for Boeing. More than 80% of the 737 Max planes that are grounded are flown by airlines outside the United States. Boeing will need those aviation authorities around the globe to lift their orders grounding the jets for their customers to begin flying the planes once again. “It will be jarring if other countries don’t immediately follow. I’ll be disappointed. But I guess I won’t be too surprised if other countries thumb their nose at us and don’t follow immediately,” said Jeffrey Guzzetti, a former director of the FAA’s accident investigation division. Yin Liqin/China News Service/VCG/Getty Images Shanghai Airlines' Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes grounded at the airport in Shanghai, China. Authorities from nine different countries met for a week’s worth of meetings in Seattle recently to discuss problems with the 737 Max. The group, dubbed the Joint Authorities Technical Review, was headed by Chris Hart, the immediate past chairman of National Transportation Safety Board, which is independent from the FAA. Hart told CNN Business he is “not confident at all” that countries will unanimously and simultaneously approve the 737 Max’s return to service. Instead, each country may approve the plane on its own schedule. Aviation regulators have good reason to be skeptical about following the FAA’s lead when lifting the grounding. Reports about the plane’s certification have revealed a process in which Boeing, not the regulator, was calling many of the shots, and self-certifying the safety of many features. The FAA followed the company’s desire to allow pilots of the original version of the 737 to fly the Max with only a brief online instruction rather requiring full simulator training. The ability to move pilots from one plane to the other was a selling point for Boeing as it took orders for the planes. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said last month that the company still believes that online training is all that will be needed when the plane starts flying again, but that it will follow whatever regulators require. Hart said he believes the FAA is “still recognized as the gold standard” for aircraft certification. But questions about its certification process for the Max were at the core of the meeting in Seattle. “We are not here to determine when to un-ground the plane,” he said. “We are here to determine if the certification was robust and if it wasn’t robust, what needs to be done to make it robust in the future.” Boeing and the FAA both issued statements saying they were pleased to participate in the meeting. The FAA said the joint authorities will take a comprehensive look at its certification process. Boeing said it’s confident the regulatory review will ensure the solution will “get it right.” But the process to get the planes back in the air around the globe will be an uphill battle for Boeing. “It’s hard to tell what is based upon genuine disagreement about safety, what is based upon lack of trust, and what is based upon not wanting to be seen as rubber stamping the FAA approval,” said Richard Aboulafia, aerospace analyst for the Teal Group. “But that’s three reasons why it’s going to be different this time.”<doc-sep>Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg announced on Monday that he would be on the first flights of the Boeing 737 Max when it returns to service. Muilenburg made the announcement in response to a question at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Chicago. The Boeing CEO says the gesture is a "really important part of showing our confidence" in the 737 Max. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg announced at the company's annual shareholder meeting on Monday that he would be on the first flights of the Boeing 737 Max when it returns to service. "We will have Boeing teammates deployed with our customers as we bring the [737 Max] fleet back up, and that will include first flights for many of our customers," Muilenburg said in response to a question the meeting. "So it will include me and many others, and we are going to be doing this in partnership with many of our airlines." The Boeing CEO added: "This is a really important part of showing our confidence in the product, and I can tell you our Boeing employees are very supportive of doing that as well." Read more: Boeing CEO vows that the fixed 737 Max will be 'one of the safest airplanes ever to fly' after the jet suffered 2 fatal crashes in five months Muilenburg told shareholders that he would also participate on two test flights aboard 737 Max airliners equipped with the updated control software. "I've been on two Max test flights already during the last three weeks," he said. "One, so I can get some hands-on experience with the new software and listen to our pilots while they are flying it. Two, to demonstrate our confidence in the software." The Boeing 737 Max has been grounded globally since March 13 following the crashes of Lion Air Flight JT610 in October and Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 last month. In total, 346 passengers and crew were killed in the two crashes. Both incidents involved nearly brand-new Boeing 737 Max 8 airliners that crashed after suffering from control problems shortly after takeoff.<doc-sep>
Boeing said late Thursday that it has completed a software update for its 737 Max planes, a key step in getting the aircraft flying again after aviation authorities grounded the jets around the world following two fatal crashes. Boeing said it is planning to work with the Federal Aviation Administration to schedule a certification flight. Shares of the airplane manufacturer rose after it released its statement, trading up 2.8 percent late in the session. The nearly 400 Boeing 737 Max planes in airline fleets were grounded by aviation authorities in mid-March after a second deadly crash of the fast-selling plane in less than five months. Investigators in the latest crash, in Ethiopia, have pointed to an automated anti-stall system the that pilots battled in the last minutes of both crashes. The system, known as MCAS, pushes the plane’s nose down repeatedly if the aircraft’s software senses it is going into a stall. That is a normal position to avoid a stall, but it can be catastrophic if the plane is not actually in a stall. Crash investigators have implicated the system in the Ethiopia crash and another 737 Max crash in October, saying it was triggered by bad data from the sensors. On Thursday, Boeing said it has flown the 737 Max with the updated software for 360 hours on 207 flights. It also, as planned, has provided updating training materials for 737 Max pilots. Some pilots complained that they were not told that the MCAS system was even on the planes, until after the October crash of Lion Air Flight 610, which killed all 189 on board. In order to transition from an older model of the Boeing 737 to the 737 Max, pilots said they were given training on a computer or tablet, with some courses that were less than an hour long. MCAS was not mentioned. Boeing’s lack of disclosure has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers as well as the pilots. FAA’s acting chief, Daniel Elwell, at a House aviation panel’s hearing on Wednesday said the new MCAS system should have been included in pilot manuals. How the Boeing 737 Max won approval from the FAA is the subject of several federal investigations and others by lawmakers. Boeing Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement, “We’re committed to providing the FAA and global regulators all the information they need, and to getting it right. We’re making clear and steady progress and are confident that the 737 Max with updated MCAS software will be one of the safest airplanes ever to fly. The accidents have only intensified our commitment to our values, including safety, quality and integrity, because we know lives depend on what we do.”