New Stall Prevention Feature Was Not Adequately Publicized, Regulators Say

An automated stall-prevention system on Boeing's new 737 MAX airplanes was not properly publicized, and is being looked at as a possible contributing factor in an accident in Indonesia that fatally injured 189 people when one of the planes went down October 29.

Quartz relays a report from the Wall Street Journal which indicates that sources at the FAA, pilots at U.S. carriers, and other regulators are saying that pilots were not trained on the use of the system before the new 737 variant was phased into fleets.

Under certain rare conditions, the system can push the nose of the aircraft down so sharply that pilots are unable to recover from the attitude. The system is designed to prevent the nose of the aircraft from being raised too high. Quartz reports that, according to Reuters, regulators are saying that the conditions faced by the Lion Air flight crew which led to the accident were not addressed in the plane's flight manual.

Boeing has issued a worldwide safety bulletin addressing the faulty angle of attack sensor data, and the FAA has ordered operators to update training manuals to cover the situation.

Boeing has taken orders for nearly 4,800 737 MAX airplanes globally.

(Image from file)

FMI: Source report