A Southwest Airlines 737 Max aircraft being flown to storage after a US grounding order was forced to return to a Florida airport Tuesday because of an engine problem, the carrier said. The fault on the Boeing jetliner had “absolutely no relation” to the flight-control issue that prompted US regulators to ground all 737 Max aircraft March 13, said a spokeswoman for Southwest. The engine “performance issue” occurred shortly after the plane left Orlando International Airport, she said. The Max aircraft was being flown to a storage area in Victorville, California, and only the pilots were on board. The FAA grounding allows for airlines to fly 737 Max aircraft that don’t have passengers, and Southwest is gradually shifting its 34 Max jets to Victorville. <br/>
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During flight simulations recreating the problems with the doomed Lion Air plane, pilots discovered that they had less than 40 seconds to override an automated system on Boeing’s new jets and avert disaster. The pilots tested a crisis situation similar to what investigators suspect went wrong in the Lion Air crash in Indonesia last fall. In the tests, a single sensor failed, triggering software designed to help prevent a stall. Once that happened, the pilots had just moments to disengage the system and avoid an unrecoverable nose dive of the Boeing 737 Max, according to people involved in the testing in recent days. The software, as originally designed and explained, left little room for error. Those involved in the testing had not fully understood just how powerful the system was until they flew the plane on a 737 Max simulator. <br/>
Eastar Jet's 2 Boeing 737 Max 8 planes have had 44 malfunctions in the less than 4 months since they went into service here, a report showed Tuesday. Based on data from the transport ministry and Eastar Jet, Hong Chul-ho of the Liberty Korea Party said that among the 44 malfunctions were defects in the auto-throttle and the aviation management computer, and a failure to mark signals on the inertial navigation system. "There have been numerous defects on the aircraft, but the transport ministry issued an airworthiness certificate to operate them when they were brought in December and January," Hong said. Eastar Jet refuted the lawmaker's comments, stating that the defects mentioned were common among all aircraft in operation worldwide. <br/>
Mexico's Interjet has grounded more than two-thirds of its Sukhoi Superjet 100 fleet, with dozens of engines out of service as the airline remains locked in talks with Sukhoi over the withdrawal of the aircraft. Fifteen of Interjet's 22 SSJ100s are in storage while only 7 aircraft remain in service. The stored aircraft were parked as early as April 2018, although about half of the 15 aircraft went into storage in the second half of 2018. Since the year began, Interjet has parked 2 more SSJ100s. Sources familiar with the situation say Interjet wants to sell its SSJ100 fleet back to Sukhoi, but is deadlocked in talks with the manufacturer, who wants the airline to keep operating the aircraft. Dozens of PowerJet SaM146 engines are out of service as Interjet has not paid for engine repairs, say sources. <br/>
WOW Air has won approval from its bondholders to convert debt to equity following the recent collapse of talks with 2 potential investors. In a brief notice to investors March 26, the carrier said: “Bondholders have formally approved to convert their bonds into equity and formal discussions with investors have commenced to fund the company. This is an important milestone in financially restructuring the company and securing the long-term sustainability of WOW Air.” The note gave no indication as to the amount of debt or percentage of the airline’s equity now held by the bondholders. Nor was there any indication of the position of WOW Air founder, CE and majority shareholder Skúli Mogensen. <br/>