Boeing in the next 10 days will roll out an upgrade to the MCAS stall prevention system for 737 MAX aircraft that have had two deadly accidents in recent months, two industry sources told AFP.
The system was implicated in the crash of a 737 MAX 8 in Indonesia in October but the sources cautioned that the cause of the fatal Ethiopia Airlines accident last weekend has not yet been determined.
The software fix, which was already underway prior to the latest incident, will only take about two hours to install, said the sources, who asked not to be identified.
The MAX aircraft have been grounded worldwide in the wake of Sunday’s crash near Addis Ababa that killed 157 passengers and crew, and Boeing has halted deliveries of its top-selling model. The black boxes from the Ethiopian aircraft, which was only a few months old and crashed a few minutes after takeoff, are being analyzed by the French authorities to try to determine the cause of the accident.
The Lion Air 737 MAX 8 crashed last October also just minutes after takeoff, killing 189 people. The initial investigation indicated it was due to a malfunction on the stall prevention system, a new feature on the MAX planes.
Several American pilots also reported issues with the MCAS and the Federal Aviation Administration said it ordered Boeing to issue a fix by April.
