EUROPEAN AVIATION AGENCY SAYS 737 MAX TO BE CLEARED NEXT WEEK

The Boeing 737 Max will be approved to resume flights in Europe next week, following nearly two years of reviews after the aircraft was involved in two deadly crashes that saw the planes grounded worldwide, the head of the European aviation safety agency said.

Patrick Ky, executive director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, or EASA, told reporters the planes will be permitted to fly so long as they meet conditions specified by the agency and that pilots are up to date on their training.

“It will be cleared to fly again from next week,” he said at an online event hosted by Germany’s Aviation Press Club, David Rising reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The planes were grounded in March 2019 following the crashes of a Lion Air flight near Jakarta on Oct. 29, 2018, and an Ethiopian Airlines flight on March 10, 2019, killing a total of 346 people.

Investigators determined that the cause of the crashes was a faulty computer system that pushed the plane’s nose downward in flight and couldn’t be overridden by pilots.

Changes mandated by EASA, based in Cologne, Germany, include a recertification of the plane’s flight-control system, called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, which was not a part of previous 737 models.

When EASA published its proposed air worthiness directive for the Max in November, Ky said the agency’s review of the aircraft “began with the MCAS but went far beyond.”

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