Southwest and United Airlines have extended the cancellation of flights using Boeing 737 Max aircraft, following the news that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has discovered a new flaw in the planes flight computer.
Southwest Airlines had previously announced it would begin using the 737 Max again starting September 2nd, as long as the plane was re-certified by the FAA. Now, the airline says it wont start using the plane again until at least October 1st. Some 150 flights will be removed from Southwests schedule of 4,000 per day.
United Airlines had previously canceled 737 Max flights through August 3rd. But the company announced Wednesday that it was extending that cancellation through at least September 3rd. United will have to drop between 40 to 45 flights per day in July, and 60 per day in August, according to a statement.
American Airlines extended its own cancellation of 737 Max flights to at least September 3rd earlier this month. But the company is not moving that date again (yet, at least) following the FAAs discovery. “Our team continues to work collaboratively with the FAA, Boeing and the Allied Pilots Association,” Leslie Scott, a spokesperson for American Airlines, said in an email to The Verge. “At this point, I dont have anything additional to share.”
The 737 Max was grounded across the globe in March after two of the planes crashed within five months, killing 346 people total. The crashes both had to do with a piece of software that Boeing had installed on the 737 Max known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS.
Boeing designed the 737 Max with bigger engines to improve the planes fuel efficiency — a metric that affects the ultimate cost of operation, one that is crucial in the fight with rival Airbus over market share. But the 737 Maxs bigger engines needed to be mounted higher up and further forward than on older 737s, making the plane susceptible to stalls in some situations.
MCAS was supposed to help compensate for these differences. It was designed to recognize when the planes nose pitched too high, which it measured by taking readings from “angle-of-attack” sensors — small, weather vane-like features that measure the angle a plane is pointing at any given time. MCAS would automatically tilt the nose down if it pitched too far up.
Boeing did not properly disclose MCAS to airlines or pilots, according to the FAA, because doing so would have required new training, which would have cost the company millions of dollars.
A software fix has been ready for months, though the FAA had not yet flight-tested Boeings solution.
