Boeing 737 MAX returns to service in first US commercial flight since March 2019

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A Boeing 737 MAX with 100 passengers aboard has successfully completed a trip from Miami to New York, in the aircraft’s first U.S. commercial flight since faulty sensor readings contributed to two deadly crashes and the plane was grounded in 2019.

The American Airlines flight landed at New York’s LaGuardia Airport at 1.12pm on Tuesday, following the uneventful two hour, 48 minute flight.

Passengers on the flight, many of them members of the media, booked tickets through the airline’s normal channels. American alerted passengers that they would be flying on a 737 MAX and gave them a chance to change flights if they were uncomfortable.

The president of American Airlines was on board the flight, as were the wife of the pilot and mother of the first officer. Many other passengers were simply normal travelers making their way to New York.

‘Schedule and price, that’s the most important,’ passenger Honey Torrealba, a 26-year-old social media manager, told CNBC before boarding the flight, dismissing concerns about the MAX’s troubled history. 

All of Boeing’s 737MAX aircraft were grounded in March 2019 after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, which killed 346 people in all.  

Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration approved changes that Boeing made to an automated flight-control system that was implicated in the disasters.

In both crashes, the system pushed the nose down repeatedly based on faulty sensor readings, and pilots were unable to regain control.

A Reuters/IPSOS poll shows that more than half of passengers are wary of taking the jet when reminded of two fatal crashes that led to the grounding.

‘This aircraft is ready to go,’ American President Robert Isom said at a media briefing in Miami before the flight. The airline is confident in the safety of the 737 MAX, he added.

American’s first flight between Miami and LaGuardia follows flight control updates, maintenance work, fresh pilot training and town hall meetings with flight crews to walk them through Boeing’s changes and address concerns. 

American Airlines currently has 31 737 MAX aircraft after taking delivery of seven more jets since the FAA lifted its safety ban, including one on Monday and plans to gradually reintroduce the plane to its fleet. 

The MAX was grounded worldwide in March 2019, days after the second crash. Reports by House and Senate committees faulted Boeing and the FAA for failures in the process of certifying the plane.

FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson, a former military and airline pilot, operated a test flight in September and vouched for the plane’s safety, saying he would put his family on it. 

American Airlines President Robert Isom was on Tuesday’s inaugural U.S. flight.

American plans to make one round trip a day between Miami and New York with the planes through January 4 before putting the MAX on more routes. 

United Airlines plans to resume flights with the MAX in February, and Southwest Airlines plans to resume flights with the planes in March.

The MAX’s return comes at a time when COVID-19 has thrust the industry into its worst crisis, with airlines parking hundreds of jets as demand hovers around 30 percent of 2019 levels.

When the 737 MAX was grounded, U.S. airlines canceled flights because they lacked aircraft to meet demand, adding to Boeing’s financial liability.

Now airlines are deferring jet deliveries and do not expect a robust rebound until COVID-19 vaccines are widely available.

Relatives of 737 MAX crash victims oppose its return.

‘The truth is that 346 people are now dead because Boeing cut corners, lied to regulators, and simply considers this the cost of doing business,’ Yalena Lopez-Lewis, whose husband died in the crash, said in a statement issued by her lawyers. 

‘It is infuriating that American Airlines is in effect rewarding Boeing for the corrupt and catastrophic process that led to the Max.’

Zipporah Kuria, a British citizen whose father also died in the Ethiopian crash, pointed to the recent disclosure in a Senate committee report that Boeing representatives coached FAA test pilots reviewing Boeing updates to the Max flight-control system.

‘Boeing leadership is still riddled with deceit. Their priorities are not on consumer safety,’ she said in an interview.

Regulators in Europe and Brazil also cleared the way for airlines to resume using the plane if certain changes were made and pilots were provided with additional training.

The first worldwide passenger flight with a revamped MAX took place this month in Brazil. 

Brazil’s Gol airlines has since operated more than 540 flights and Aeromexico has operated more than 80 with MAX planes, according to tracking service Flightradar24.