Name: What Went Wrong with the Boeing 737 Max 8?
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The engines on the Boeing 737 Max 8 are a little larger and sit slightly forward and higher on the wing compared to other 737s. That changes the center of gravity of the airplane, making it more likely to pitch upward on takeoff and not receive the lift it needs to stay airborne. This led Boeing to develop autopilot software to counteract that tendency. Based on preliminary data, the Ethiopian Airlines flight crew might have been in a tug of war with the plane—the software instructing the nose of the plane to pitch downward might have overridden their attempts to pull upward.

After Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 fell from the sky, becoming the second Boeing 737 Max 8 to crash in 6 months, experts weigh in on what may have gone wrong.

After Ethiopian flight 302 fell from the sky, marking the second Boeing 737 Max 8 crash within 6 months, experts weigh in on what may have happened.

Experts weigh in on what may have happened to the Ethiopian flight 302.

What Went Wrong with the Boeing 737 Max 8?

After Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 fell from the sky, becoming the second Boeing 737 Max 8 to crash in 6 months, experts weigh in on what may have gone wrong.

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What Went Wrong with the Boeing 737 Max 8?Published: March 19, 2019Onscreen: The Ethiopian Airlines plane that fell from the sky killed all 157 people onboard. It was the second Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft to crash in 6 months.Ashley Nunes: It was on route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Kenya. This airplane started encountering some technical problems.Onscreen: Its wreckage was later found a few dozen miles away. So what happened? It’s too soon to know for sure. But here’s what we can say about the aircraft itself.Miles O’Brien: The 737 Max 8 has been the biggest seller to date for Boeing for its airline division ever.Anthony Brickhouse: The engines are actually a little larger, they’re more efficient.Onscreen: And those engines sit slightly forward and higher compared to other 737s.Nunes: And that changed the center of gravity of the airplane…Onscreen: Making it more likely to pitch upward on takeoff than other 737s and not receive the lift it needs to stay airborne.O’Brien: And that’s what led them to come up with this piece of software designed to counteract that tendency.Brickhouse: To basically prevent something like that from happening.Onscreen: If the computer detects the plane pitching too far upward, it pushes the nose back down automatically.O’Brien: The question is, did that attempt to make it safer, actually, in the end make it riskier to fly for the flight crew?Onscreen: Based on preliminary data, the Ethiopian Airlines flight crew might have been in a tug of war with the computer. The software instructing the plane to pitch downward might have overridden attempts by the pilots to pull upward.Nunes: A fight for control to maintain stability of the airplane.O’Brien: And in this case, potentially, the computers won.Onscreen: The first of these planes to crash in October 2018 in Indonesia had an additional problem.Nunes: We know that the sensor began sending erroneous information to the flight management system.Onscreen: That sensor may have triggered the software, leading to the struggle between pilot and machine.Brickhouse: And the computer system made a decision with bad information, basically.Onscreen: We don’t know yet if the same thing happened in the recent crash. The flight recorders, if unscathed, may hold the answer.Brickhouse: It’s important that we get as many facts as we can, and as much data as we can before we make sweeping decisions.Onscreen: When asked to comment, Boeing did not respond. Pilots are trained to manually override automated systems (which are common in aircraft) but some situations are particularly challenging.O’Brien: Here’s the problem, though: if you have an airplane that violently pitches over, even if you’ve trained yourself in how to turn off that system quickly, you have precious little time to do anything. You can make an argument that the system is fundamentally unsafe.Onscreen: For now, the FAA has ordered the grounding of all 737 Max aircraft operated by U.S. airlines or in U.S. territory. Boeing stated its confidence in the plane’s safety, but said it recommends the grounding of the entire global fleet “out of an abundance of caution.”And the company will issue a software upgrade to its planes “in the coming weeks” as we wait to find out exactly what happened.

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What Went Wrong with the Boeing 737 Max 8?

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