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FAA ruling on a 737 Max software bug puts the Max 10 back in line for certification
FAA safety experts ruled a 737 Max software glitch poses no safety concern, clearing a late obstacle to Boeing's Max 10 and its nearly 1,500 orders. Officials told Reuters approval could come as soon as later this month, with crews following an interim procedure until Boeing finishes a software fix.
The Investor · Invest desk
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What happened
- The FAA's Corrective Action Review Board based its ruling on pilots keeping full control of the aircraft and on cockpit indications it called clear and unambiguous.
- According to Boeing, the fault appears when crews modify a preprogrammed route after a missed approach, requiring extra cockpit steps before automated guidance returns for the next attempt.
- FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said Boeing had corrected an earlier bug, but that the correction introduced this new one.
- Boeing will tell airlines how to recognize and respond to the fault, and the FAA will flag that guidance to US carriers and foreign regulators in a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin.
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Why it matters
- exposure The remaining certification risk sits in Boeing's unfinished software fix, because the last correction to this code is the one that created the go-around fault.
- exposure The ruling also covers the Max 7, which runs the same software, so Southwest no longer has an open review over the newly certified jet.
- decision Max 10 customers including Alaska and United had faced a possible lengthy delay. They can now plan around a certification date between later this month and year-end.
"The pilots remain in control of the airliner, train for these scenarios," Bedford said. "The issue that we're looking at right now is the workload component." [10] Because control was not in question, the agency handled the fault with a crew procedure and let certification work go ahead [1][16].
The hold was brief. The FAA said earlier in the week that it would delay Max 10 certification until it had finished its analysis [17]. The review board that met in Seattle cleared the issue on Friday, October 2 [3][1]. The jet's approval has been delayed for years [13], and this obstacle lasted less than a week [1].
The order estimate comes from a Jefferies research note [7], and Jefferies said the ruling allows certification before the end of the year [8]. Officials have pointed to later this month, which leaves the analyst's outer bound about two months past theirs, running through November and December [2]. The reports do not include a delivery schedule or a value for those orders.
The FAA is moving before the software is fixed. Boeing said it "will continue to follow the lead of the FAA" while it develops a fix and works with airlines on an interim procedure that lets crews restore automated vertical navigation [5]. On the officials' timeline, the Max 10 could be certified with that procedure in place and the fix still unfinished [3]. Major US airlines had already chosen not to use the affected software version while the review ran [11].
There are three ways this can go. Approval comes later this month. It slips toward Jefferies' year-end bound. Or it stalls because the permanent fix brings a defect of its own, the way Bedford said the last correction did [9]. I'd expect certification inside the Jefferies window, because the board's finding settles the one question the FAA said it was holding certification for [17][2]. If the Max 10 is still uncertified at year-end, or the FAA puts on a new hold over the replacement software, I'm wrong. The case against my view is the program's record. The FAA certified the Max 7 in August only after requiring several design changes, including updates to flight-control software and the engine anti-ice system [12].
What to watch
- Whether the FAA certifies the Max 10 by the end of October, as officials told Reuters, or uses the room Jefferies left through December 31.
- Boeing's permanent software fix, and whether the FAA sends that release back to a review board after the last correction produced this fault.
- Whether foreign regulators that receive the FAA's Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin accept the interim procedure or set conditions of their own.