Subtitles section Play video
-
This is an airplane engine.
-
It's sitting in a field in Bishoftu, Ethiopia— part of the wreckage of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which crashed on March 10, 2019.
-
157 people died.
-
This was just a few months after another flight, Lion Air 610, crashed in Indonesia and killed 189 people.
-
These two flights were operating the same plane: The Boeing 737 MAX 8.
-
And its engine is the key to understanding why this particular plane has caused so many problems.
-
But there's nothing actually wrong with this engine.
-
In fact, airplane manufacturers raced to put them on their new planes.
-
That's where the problem started.
-
The two biggest airplane manufacturers in the world are Airbus and Boeing.
-
And they have a fierce rivalry.
-
If one of them can offer a better plane, the other could lose a lot of money.
-
That's exactly what was about to happen in 2010.
-
Airbus announced that they would update their most popular model, the A320, a single-aisle airplane that services many domestic flights.
-
You've probably been on one.
-
For this new plane, Airbus had a big update.
-
It would have a new kind of engine.
-
It was much larger than the previous engine, but it would make the plane 15 percent more fuel efficient.
-
And just as importantly, this upgrade wouldn't change the plane that much.
-
A pilot could walk into the new model, with little additional training, and be on their way.
-
It was called the A320 NEO, and it would save airlines a lot of money.
-
This was a problem for Boeing.
-
To compete with Airbus, Boeing's obvious move was to upgrade the engine on their single-aisle plane, the 737.
-
But there was one issue.
-
Here's a sketch of the 737 next to the Airbus A320.
-
Notice how the 737 is lower to the ground than the A320.
-
This meant Airbus could slide a new engine under the wing of their A320.
-
But there wasn't enough room under the wing of the Boeing 737.
-
But a few months later, Boeing's product development head had big news.
-
He said: "We figured out a way to get a big enough engine under the wing".
-
Their solution was to move up the engine on the wing, so that it would be slightly higher and it would fit on their 737s.
-
Here's a promotional video of that updated 737 in the air.
-
You can actually see that the top of the engine is above the wing.
-
Boeing called this model the 737 MAX.
-
And just like Airbus with the A320, Boeing said their new plane was so similar to its predecessor that pilots would only need minimal additional training.
-
The 737 MAX became the hottest selling plane on the market.
-
And it helped Boeing keep up with AirBus.
-
Except, moving the engine up on the 737 had a side effect.
-
When the 737 MAX was in full thrust, like during takeoff, the nose tended to point too far upward, which could lead to a stall.
-
This was a problem, because these planes were supposed to behave exactly like the old ones.
-
So Boeing came up with a workaround.
-
Instead of re-engineering the planes, they installed software that automatically pushed the nose downward if the pilot flew the plane at too high of an angle.
-
They called it the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS.
-
But because Boeing was selling the 737 MAX as pretty much the same plane as the 737, they didn't highlight the new MCAS system.
-
Many pilots only got a two-hour iPad course before entering the cockpit for the first time.
-
And the "training material did not mention" the MCAS software.
-
In 2018, several American pilots complained to the federal government that the 737 MAX was "suddenly nosing down."
-
On October 29, 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 took off from Jakarta.
-
In the flight report, which shows the plane's altitude over time, you can see that the plane was in full thrust during takeoff.
-
But at a certain point, the nose of the plane kept lurching downward.
-
The pilots couldn't figure out why this was happening.
-
The captain "asked the first officer to check the quick reference handbook."
-
They couldn't find the solution.
-
The pilots continued to fight with the MCAS.
-
The plane struggled to gain altitude.
-
Reports show it was likely because the computer was getting incorrect sensor data, pushing the plane toward the earth below.
-
12 minutes after takeoff, the plane crashed into the Java Sea.
-
In the Ethiopia crash, the report shows that the pilots were actually able to disable the MCAS, but it was too late to overcome the malfunctioning MCAS sensors.
-
For now, nearly every 737 MAX 8 in service has been grounded.
-
And the Federal Aviation Administration is facing scrutiny over how they rushed this plane through certification.
-
Boeing's response has been to apply a software update and make the MCAS "less aggressive," while also saying they'll increase pilot training on how to turn it off.
-
This problem started with a company's race to compete with its rival.
-
It pushed them to pretend like their new plane behaved exactly like their old one.
-
Even when it didn't.