Boeing's are known as some of the most reliable and safe airplanes on the market, so I was shocked to see not just one but two go down in the past few months. The first crash happened in October where a Boeing 737 MAX, which was supposed to be their newest name sake plane, crashed a few minutes after taking off in Indonesia. The second crash occurred in March in the same manner. The plane took off from Ethiopia just to nosedive and crash minutes after. The problem seemed to be a new automated flight control that only that particular model had. The pilots had not been given a proper training course in how to react if the new feature failed. This massive slip up in technology and communication amounted to the sad and unforgivable death of over 300 plus people. I mean come on, you cant just let one plan go down and assume the others are fine. Some one should have stepped up and taken responsibly. Such a needless waste of innocent lives. It took the second crash to finally see a response. Boeing now requires their pilots to take a simulated training course based on the new system and the innerworkings are currently being looked at. Boeing wasn't the only one to respond the whole world did. Almost every major government starting with China has temporarily banned the 737 Max jets from use. This caused over 8600 flights to become grounded in a matter of only a few days. That is just staggering and really shows how huge and important Boeing planes are to air travel. It doesn't end there, several major airports have canceled the purchase of upcoming Boeing models. All in all its a shame to see such a renowned and iconic company get torn apart but at the end of the day they are not excused for the many deaths. Hopefully the problem is sorted out so any major devastation in the future can be avoided.
*Generally planes are very safe you have a 1 in 8000 chance of getting in an accident compared to cars which are 1 in 20. So don't worry you can still stick to the sky's.
The Wreckage form the Ethiopian Crash
I heard about this, really sad
ReplyDeleteSad and still so scary.
ReplyDeleteI was talking to a family friend who was a pilot about this and he said another reason these incidents happened in Indonesia and Ethiopia is because their airlines are so desperate for pilots, they don't require the same amount of hours to become a captain. So while American Air might require 3,000 hours of flying to become a captain, a lot of other 3rd world countries only require 100 or 200 hours. It's scary to know that your pilot may not have enough experience to legally fly in America at all, but he's flying a plane that he doesn't even 100% understand the new technology yet.
ReplyDeleteAnd as someone who travels all the time, this is TERRIFYING.