Fatal Shortcut

October 2018: Lion Air Flight, a Boeing 737 MAX, on a flight from Jakarta crashed into the Java sea, 13 minutes after take-off, killing all 189 on-board

March 2019: Ethiopian Airlines, a Boeing 737 MAX, on a flight from Ethiopia crashed 6 minutes after take-off, killing all 157 on-board

Immediately all Boeing 737 MAX aircrafts were grounded around the world. Investigation put blame on a faulty software but the real issue was far more deeper.

To understand what transpired the disaster we need to rewind almost ten years before the actual incident. In 2010, Airbus (biggest competitor of Boeing) came up with a new jet engine, which was 15% more fuel-efficient. Fuel efficiency is a big deal for all airline companies as fuel is the major expenditure for them. Naturally, this was a panic moment for Boeing senior management as they needed to come up with their own fuel-efficient jet engine. And they did. Only problem was that the new jet engine was larger than the old one. There was not enough room under the wing of the Boeing 737 to fit it. So, they found a workaround instead of re-engineering the plane. They shifted the engine further up its original position. They called the new version Boeing 737 MAX. Boeing 737 MAX became an instant hit in the market. Demand for the new plane soared. But shifting the engine caused a new problem. When the plane was in full thrust, during the take-off, the nose tended to point too far upwards, causing the plane to stall. So, to fix this problem, they installed a software and called it Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). The software automatically pushed the nose downward if it felt the angle was too high. However, they did not notify the airlines about this new software fearing a negative impact on the demand. Even the training material did not mention this software. They just expected the software to work fine.

In 2018, when Lion Air Flight took off, it suddenly started nosing down because the MCAS was getting incorrect sensor data. The pilot did not know what was wrong. They referred to the training manual but could not find a solution. The plane crashed 13 minutes after takeoff. Less than six months later Ethiopian Airlines faced the same problem and crashed six minutes after takeoff.

What Boeing did not realize was that they are not in the business of typical consumer products. Boeing found a workaround to all it’s problems and tried to fix the symptoms rather than solving the root cause. In the race to outperform their rival and boost the numbers, they forgot their most important asset – people.