Boeing Co on Monday said that it could have its fleet of 737 MAX jets flying again by January as safety checks on the aircraft’s troubled flight software reach completion.
The airplanes were grounded in March in the wake of two fatal crashes in the space of five months that killed 346 people.
The world’s biggest plane maker said it hopes the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will approve certification of the aircraft’s flight control software before the end of the year.
A fault with the airplane’s anti-stall mechanism is believed to have caused the Lionair crash in Indonesia in October last year and the Ethiopian Airlines disaster in March.
“Based on this schedule, it is possible that the resumption of MAX deliveries to airline customers could begin in December, after certification, when the FAA issues an airworthiness directive rescinding the grounding order,” the company said in a statement.
“In parallel, we are working towards final validation of the updated training requirements, which must occur before the MAX returns to commercial service, and which we now expect to begin in January,” it said.
The 737 MAX was a staple of many airline fleets around the world. All 371 aircraft in operation were grounded after regulators in Asia took the aircraft out of service, which was soon followed by the FAA decision to take it out of service in North America.
Boeing’s share price fell sharply after the grounding of the airplanes and the company estimated in April that the decision would cost it US$1 billion, as it was forced to cut production.
It faces dozens of lawsuits from victims of the two crashes and has also been criticized for potentially misleading the FAA over what it knew about problems with the software.
Boeing had hoped to have the planes back in operation by August.
However, problems have dogged the company’s efforts to fix the issues with the anti-stall system, which is known as the maneuvering characteristics augmentation system. It was designed to compensate for the fitting of a heavier engine to the aircraft by ensuring that the nose of the plane would automatically turn down to avoid stalling.
However, Boeing appeared to be confident that five key testing procedures would soon be completed.
The first, involving multiple simulator evaluation tests on the software system with the FAA, had been completed, Boeing said.
Still ongoing were tests by airline and FAA pilots, a final submission to the FAA and then tests by “global regulatory pilots to validate training requirements.”
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