US to mandate design changes on Boeing 737 MAX 8 after crashes

The United States will mandate that Boeing implement design changes by April that have been in the works for months for the 737 MAX 8 fleet after a fatal crash in October but said the plane was airworthy and did not need to be grounded after the Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 crashed after take-off on Sunday. Boeing confirmed the FAA’s announcement late Monday that it will deploy a software upgrade across the 737 MAX 8 fleet “in the coming weeks” as pressure mounted. Two US senators called the fleet’s immediate grounding and a rising number of airlines said they would voluntarily ground their fleets. The company confirmed it had for several months “been developing a flight control software enhancement for the 737 MAX, designed to make an already safe aircraft even safer.” Boeing did not reference Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash in connection to the software upgrade. The statement did express the company’s condolences to the relatives of the 157 people who died, however. The FAA said the changes will “provide reduced reliance on procedures associated with required pilot memory items.” The FAA also said Boeing will “update training requirements and flight crew manuals to go with the design change” to an automated protection system called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System or MCAS. The changes also include MCAS activation and angle of attack signal enhancements.<br/>