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China's 737 MAX move shows growing global aviation clout: analysts

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By Dan Martin and Martin Abbugao in Singapore

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The photo is of a B787, not a B737. You can tell by the 4-door per side placement and the main gear number of tires. The 787 is a much larger aircraft, but that is hard to tell without other AC at the same perspective.

China should have input in the safety of every aircraft that lands inside their country. They are learning.

OTOH, the B737-Max8 shouldn't have been grounded. There are thousands of pilots flying it who did so safely.

Ground the pilots until they have sufficient training, in a simulator, to handle the specific issue.

Hold Boeing accountable for correct documentation and training whenever subsystems are introduced which don't behave exactly as they did in prior versions.

And Ethiopia Airlines probably wants to increase their flight time for copilots to match the US standards of 1500 hrs in aircraft type.

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that the president of a country had to issue a political executive order to ground the planes epitomises the farce surrounding the 737max from development, certification and to the crash-aftermath decision makings of the FAA and boeing.

2 fatal nosediving crashes killing more than 300 people within 5 months during the same phase of flight profile, and from a delivered total of just 300++ planes, is enough justification to ground it, if human lives and safety are of genuine importance to anyone.

but some are more interested in political flag waving and corporate profits than about human lives.

as an example, the talking heads on cnbc talked about politically motivated revenge in response to trade wars by the chinese, when they were the first to ground their fleet, the largest 737max fleet operating out there. next day, these talking heads talked about international pilots, especially those from the 3rd world, need more training ! in one interview, these talking heads kept pressing the former transportation secretary for an answer which they probably want to hear and matches their own biased views. when the answer was to the effect that "if safety is of importance, ground them". the paralysed facial expressions of these people were priceless, that wasn't what they wished to hear.

the subsequent EU and canadian groundings showed who is right. and today's announcements by EU and canada ? enough said. thank god no more lives were lost before the united states finally became the last to ground theirs.

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The previously undisclosed detail on the earlier Lion Air flight represents a new clue in the mystery of how some 737 Max pilots faced with the malfunction have been able to avert disaster while the others

lost control of their planes and crashed. The presence of a third pilot in the cockpit wasn't contained in Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee's Nov. 28 report on the crash and hasn't previously

*been reported. The so-called dead-head pilot on the earlier flight from Bali to Jakarta told the crew to cut power to the motor driving the nose down, according to the people familiar, *part of a checklist that all

pilots are required to memorize.

So it appears that at least 1 pilot had the necessary training to know how to handle the problem. Unfortunately, 2 other crews which crashed didn't know or get that training. Somehow.

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Ground the pilots until they have sufficient training, in a simulator, to handle the specific issue.

But Chinese pilots, like all other pilots around the world, have been complaining about these sudden nose-dives with this particular aircraft model. Apparently, they've filed a complaint at Boeing even before the Ethiopian plane crash, but they say that the company's response wasn't substantial enough. Sure, they're supposed to know how to "handle" it when such issues arise, although it's easier said than done, but no can dispute that the plane itself malfunctions. Why defend Boeing in this and just blame the pilots?

China's move of grounding these planes might have some kind of political/economic motives behind it, but other countries quickly followed suit, proving that there are legitimate concerns with that aircraft model itself.

Hold Boeing accountable for correct documentation and training whenever subsystems are introduced which don't behave exactly as they did in prior versions.

Which makes grounding their planes as being the best possible action until everything is resolved, instead of continuing on risking more lives.

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US FAA Subcontracted Testing back to Boeing which subsequently self-passed all their checks and understated the effect of their control systems.

Right now, I would steer clear of 737 Max in Asia. The US hasn't had any accidents with that new model yet, though just like the Prior Air Lion incident in the 737 Max in which a passenger piloted helped the crew manage a similar incident, one wonders whether these anomalies are being reported.

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Passenger Pilot... A pilot taking a Lift with the crew seated inside the cockpit.

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Why defend Boeing in this and just blame the pilots?

Boeing definitely created a dangerous situation and failed to document or notify airlines or pilots about the new behavior. I never said anything different. But all aircraft have mechanical failures that pilots are supposed to figure out and solve.

What we know is that before either crash, at least 1 pilot was able to recognize and follow procedures that were documented somewhere. What isn't clear is where those procedures were documented, at least not to me.

Boeing has fault (documentation, poor software, pushing certification, training lacking, and probably 10 more issues)

Airlines have fault ( purchased the Max8 with out the AoA disagreement light)

Mechanics have fault for not fixing a reported problem with least 4 attempts (Lion Air)

Pilots have fault for not knowing/memorizing the checklist and being able to execute it during critical flight profiles.

FAA has fault for being influenced by political pressure and outsourcing much of the certification to the same company. That should be illegal.

And any politicians helping Boeing get faster certification and interfering with the ongoing investigations have fault.

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