DNA Edit: More disclosures – Boeing’s software mess is getting graver and murkier

The case against Boeing 737 Max is getting stronger by the day. Now comes even more damning evidence. Boeing knew that a cockpit alert was not working the way the company had told buyers it would. This happened months before a Lion Air plane went down off the coast of Indonesia in October last year. Details released last week said that the accident occurred after erroneous readings by a single angle-of-attack sensor triggered software that pushed the jet’s nose down, forcing the pilots to lose control. The latest disclosures raise new questions about the 737 Max’s development and testing, and even more importantly, Boeing’s lack of transparency. The alert was supposed to flash when two angle-of-attack vanes sent conflicting data about the relation of the plane’s nose to the oncoming air stream. 

Clearly, the impact of Max’s two crashes, the second one in Ethiopia, both between them claiming 346 lives, is evident. Asian airlines are cutting routes, revamping their schedules and leasing extra aircraft to fill gaps left by the grounding of Boeing 737 Max 8s. As investigations into the crashes continue, Boeing anticipates a $1 billion increase in costs related to the 737 Max, including fixing software implicated in the disasters, adding pilot training and compensating airlines and families of crash victims. Investigators are examining what Boeing said last week: The role of flight-control software that pushed the planes’ noses down based on faulty sensor readings. Nearly 400 Max jets were grounded at airlines worldwide in mid-March after the Ethiopia crash. 

In Asia, where air passenger traffic is growing the fastest, the groundings are pushing airlines’ costs higher at a time of rising fuel prices, squeezing carriers’ profits. Chinese airlines had 96 Max 8 jets, but have managed to avoid massive cancellations by swapping in other models of aircraft.