US airlines teams visit Boeing as aviation body awaits 737 MAX upgrades
Factory visits indicate aeroplane maker may be nearing completion of software patch following two deadly crashes
Chicago/Washington — Teams from the three US airlines that own 737 MAX jets headed to Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington, to review a software upgrade on Saturday, as US regulators prepare to receive and review the fixes in coming weeks. The factory visits indicated Boeing may be near completing a software patch for its newest 737 following a Lion Air crash that killed 189 people in Indonesia in October 2018. This month, a second deadly crash involving an Ethiopian Airlines MAX in Addis Ababa triggered the fleet’s worldwide grounding. Timing for when passenger flights will resume remains uncertain. Boeing has come under global scrutiny along with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the agency that must approve the software fix and new training.
Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines, the world’s largest operator of the MAX, began parking its fleet at a facility in Victorville, California, at the southwestern edge of the Mojave Desert, to wait out the global grounding. Sou...
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