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The picture is of March 10, 2019 when a Boeing plane crashed in Ethiopia.
US aircraft company Boeing has been found guilty of fraud. According to a Bloomberg report, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) found that Boeing had violated the deal made to reform the company after two crashes in 2018-2019.
Boeing has agreed to pay a fine of 243.6 million dollars i.e. 4 thousand crores rupees for this. Apart from this, the company will spend 4 thousand crores rupees on the safety of aircraft for the next 3 years.
In fact, Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft crashed in Indonesia and Ethiopia within five months in 2018 and 2019. 346 people lost their lives in these accidents. After this, several types of investigations began. The investigation revealed several problems in the aircraft.
The company has also been asked to meet the families of the deceased. Boeing will remain under court supervision for three years.
The members of the court will inspect the safety of flights and submit a report to the government annually. If this is not done, the company will be fined.
The court team will investigate the safety of Boeing aircraft.
Know the story of the crash of 737 Max aircraft in a sequential manner…
First accident: Year- 2018, Date- 29 October, Country- Indonesia
At 6:21 am, the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft took off from Indonesia’s Soekarno-Hatta airport. It was supposed to go to Pangkal Pinang, a small city in Indonesia, at 7:20 am. But this did not happen. A few minutes after take-off, the crew of the aircraft contacted the air traffic control and asked for permission to return to Jakarta.
At this time the plane was flying at a height of 5 thousand feet. After this the plane neither issued an emergency alert nor returned. Contact with the plane was lost at 6:32. Within 11 minutes of taking off the plane fell rapidly into the Java Sea. 189 people died in this accident.
How did such a big accident happen due to the non-functioning of a small sensor?
The plane crash in Indonesia shocked the entire aviation industry. The reason for this was that Boeing had launched its plane just a year before the crash. The plane that crashed was only 3 months old. In the investigation, Indonesia’s National Transportation Agency Safety Committee said that the readings used to measure the speed of air in the plane were being recorded incorrectly a few days before the plane crash.
There are sensors fitted at the front of the plane to measure the speed of the wind hitting the plane in the sky. This tells the pilot at what angle he has to keep the plane so that it keeps moving fast in the air and does not stop.
If the nose of the plane, that is, its front part, is at the wrong angle according to the speed, then it will be difficult for the plane to stay in the air. The sensor tells the pilot that the nose of the plane is at the wrong angle and to correct this, the tail of the plane will have to be adjusted up or down.
The air maintenance staff had checked this defect and fixed it. The plane was declared fit to fly. According to aviation expert John Gazimski, whenever a plane is launched with new automated systems, there is a possibility of some defect in it. There is some mistake which the plane manufacturers cannot even think of.
The second accident happened after five months: Year- 2019, Date- March 10, Country- Ethiopia
The time was 6:38 in the morning. The weather was absolutely clear in Addis Ababa city of Ethiopia. Then Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 took off from Bole International Airport for Kenya’s capital Nairobi. One minute after take off, on the orders of the captain, the first officer informed the control tower about the flight control problem.
2 minutes after takeoff, the plane suddenly tilts forward in the air. The plane starts shaking up and down in the air. After 3 minutes, the pilot asks the first officer to ask permission from the air traffic control to return.
Soon after this, contact with the plane is lost. The plane falls down at a speed of 700 miles per hour and crashes. Like the Indonesian plane, this plane was also a Boeing 737 series Max 8 jet. There were 149 passengers and 8 crew members on board.
The speed with which the plane came down can be estimated from the fact that it created a 90 feet wide and 120 feet long crater on the ground. The debris penetrated 30 feet inside the ground and all the people on board died.
The system created for convenience became the cause of accidents
After the crash in Ethiopia, questions were raised on a system called MCAS installed in Boeing 737 series planes. This system was introduced for the convenience of the pilot so that the plane could change its angle automatically according to the outside wind. According to the New York Times, this was later considered the reason for the accidents.
Under this system, the nose of the plane i.e. its front part starts moving up and down automatically. The surprising thing was that if the plane is not on autopilot and the pilot is operating it himself, even then this system can overtake the instructions of the pilot.
Another reason for this was said to be the lack of training among the pilots. Only a handful of pilots were trained on this aircraft. The pilots who were trained were also flying old models of Boeing 737 aircraft. They did not have MCAS software installed.
Before the accidents, the 737 Max series aircraft were famous for these 4 reasons
- The engines of the 737 Max series aircraft are quite large.
- New technology has been used for designing its wings. It consumes less fuel.
- The engine also reduces noise and emission of gases that harm the environment is also reduced.
- It is also convenient for the passengers. There is not much jerk felt during the journey.
- As of January 31, 2019, 350 aircraft were in use worldwide. The company had received orders for 4,661 aircraft.
After the accidents, more than 40 countries banned it
After the accidents in Indonesia and Ethiopia, Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft were banned in more than 40 countries including India. The then US President Donald Trump had ordered that Boeing’s 737 Max series aircraft will not fly until the investigation is completed and the defects of the aircraft are removed.
Boeing had to pay 20 thousand crore rupees to the US Aviation Department. Not only this, the company suffered a loss of 20 billion dollars i.e. 16 lakh crore rupees due to the accidents. The company sacked CEO Dennis Muilenburg in December 2020.
After 18 months of investigation, the US lifted the restrictions on the flying of Max aircraft. After 2 years, Boeing 737 Max series aircraft started flying again in other countries. For this, the company had to make changes in the MCAS software.
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