Boeing & Aerospace

FAA begins re-certification flights on Boeing 737 MAX
June 29, 2020 at 11:26 am Updated June 29, 2020 at 9:42 pm

A 737 MAX 7 lands Monday at Boeing Field after the first FAA re-certification flight to test Boeing’s proposed upgrade to the MCAS flight control system. (Mike Siegel / The Seattle Times).

By
Dominic Gates
Seattle Times aerospace reporter

A few minutes before 10 a.m. Monday, a Boeing 737 MAX took off from Boeing Field with a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) pilot at the controls, the start of three days of re-certification test flights that mark a major step toward returning the aircraft to passenger service.

Though substantial additional work to gain FAA approval remains once these flights are completed, clearance for the MAX to return to service in the U.S. — assuming no further unexpected holdups — could come around mid-September.

The plane flew east and landed an hour and 20 minutes later at Moses Lake. After a 15-minute stop on the ground, the plane took off again and wheeled south over the Oregon border, then back north and west. It landed back at Boeing Field at 2:15 p.m., after completing a total time in the air of about two hours.

The test flights over the next three days will evaluate Boeing’s proposed changes to the automated flight control system on the MAX.

This is the software called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) that activated erroneously on two flights that crashed, killing 346 people. Since the second accident in March 2019, the jet has been grounded worldwide.

Under intense scrutiny by both the FAA and foreign regulators, Boeing has over the past year made multiple changes to its plans for updating the airplane’s systems. The start of these re-certification flights indicates that Boeing has finalized its changes and turned them in to the FAA.