Expert Opinion
AINsight: Max Fallout and Recovery
The FAA and Boeing can work together to get the 737 Max flying again. Over time, trust and confidence will be rebuilt.

FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson recently delivered a fresh blow to Boeing by confirming that the 737 Max recertification plan and re-entry into service would slip into 2020. The grounding of the Max is now likely to be extended into a second year; March is the one-year mark and most airlines have removed the troubled airliner from their schedules until June 2020. The fallout from two 737 Max crashes and its subsequent grounding has become the top aviation/aerospace story of 2019, but did it have to?

As the story unfolds, the duration of the 737 Max groundings—the longest of any airliner—might be more related to a lack of leadership and politics than an engineering blunder related to an aircraft subsystem.

Stuart “Kipp” Lau
Contributor - Safety
About the author

Pilot, safety expert, consultant, and aviation journalist Stuart “Kipp” Lau writes about flight safety and airmanship for AIN.

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