The World's Most Popular Jet Plane Has Been Grounded!

The Worldwide Grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX

Boeing's 737 MAX is the latest version of the most popular commercial aircraft in history. It has recently been grounded, or prohibited from operating, anywhere in the world. This follows two separate fatal crashes within five months.

Should the plane have been grounded?

In my opinion, absolutely. The 737 MAX planes have a new system, intended for safety, that is capable of pushing the nose of the plane downwards. When the system malfunctions, it can repeatedly push the nose of the plane down towards the ground, even though the pilots are fighting against it with all of their effort. The system has the capability of changing the pitch of the entire tail fin assembly,  and not just the control surfaces, or elevators.

Why didn't Boeing do something after the first crash?

It seems as though most of the blame should fall on Boeing's shoulders, not only because of the fault-prone system, but also because they did not do enough to fix the problem after the first fatal crash. I myself feel that the system shouldn't even be on the airplane, because Boeing seems to be using it as a replacement for additional crew training on the new version of the aircraft. They should have required emergency training for all flight crews, on how to disable the system, and whatever else to do when the system malfunctions.