Yemisi Izuora/Agency Report
Boeing Co, the American manufacturer of the ill-fated Boeing 737 Max plane that recently killed 149 passengers and 8 crew members in Ethiopia, has announced that its controversial plane model may resume flights before the end of 2019.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Dennis Muilenburg, is quoted to have disclosed that the company is conducting simulated flights with air-safety regulators, and working toward getting the aircraft model to full service after being cleared by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Boeing has had to update a faulty software (the anti-stall system) which investigators unanimously blamed for both the recent Ethiopian Airline crash in March and an earlier crash involving Indonesian Arline company, Lion Air.
Backstory: It will be recalled that a Nairobi-bound Boeing 737 crashed six minutes after an early-morning takeoff from Addis Ababa on March 10, killing all 157 passengers to record Boeing’s second crash in only five months making total casualties to stand at 346 combined.
WorldWide Backlash against Boeing: Following the deadly crash earlier this year, many airlines and Governments around the world moved to ground the Boeing 737 MAX. A lot of airlines who already placed orders with Boeing for the delivery of the Boeing 737 MAX decided to cancel their orders. The incident generally impacted negatively on the company’s share price and financials.
Current Situation: Although Boeing has completed the software update for an anti-stall system that has been implicated in the two crashes, it still has a lot of work to do as far as winning back the public’s trust is concerned. The question here is whether air travelers around the world are willing to trust the planes enough to travel in them.