Behind Boeing’s decision to omit details on safety system in Lion Air crash from manual

An automated flight-control system on Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft, which investigators suspect played a central role in the fatal Oct.29 Lion Air crash in Indonesia, was largely omitted from the plane’s operations manual and was the subject of debate inside Boeing, govt and industry officials said. Debate inside Boeing about what the 737 MAX manuals should say regarding the safety system, and how much training would be required before pilots could safely slide behind the controls, was more intense than usual, the officials recall. The decision to omit the control system from manuals has put a Boeing design principle at the centre of a probe into a fatal airliner crash for the first time in more than 2 decades and threatens to tarnish Boeing’s reputation for safety. <br/>