Aboard the Boeing 737 MAX for first public flight after two deadly crashes

Will this plane land safely? That question was very much on the minds of the 87 passengers on the revamped Boeing 737 MAX’s first public flight Wednesday following a 20-month grounding after two fatal crashes. US authorities last month gave the green light for the plane to return to service after upgrades in the wake of the two calamities that killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia. Wednesday’s promotional American Airlines voyage between Dallas, Texas and Tulsa, Oklahoma was intended to reassure the public before American resumes commercial service on the jet on December 29. The trip began with American flight attendants reviewing security procedures before distributing bottled water. As he welcomed passengers, pilot Pete Gamble testified to the plane’s safety and reliability. “The systems changes, the scrutiny the airplanes are going through, plus the training that we’ve enforced, has really brought back the confidence level,” Gamble said. “It needed to go through the scrutiny. It did.” Before flying the MAX, each American pilot is required to undertake a two-hour training course on a computer tablet, followed by an hour of flight simulator training, followed then by two hours with a colleague when pilots react to different flying scenarios. Aside from some turbulence along the way, Wednesday’s 50-minute flight to Tulsa proceeded uneventfully. Throughout, passengers donning face masks because of the coronavirus and separated by a seat due to social distancing betrayed no obvious anxiety. The everyday passenger not steeped in aviation will see no obvious markers of the MAX. The seats give only the numbers 737, though the wheel labels the jet as a “73-8x”. American has said that all customers who buy tickets on the plane will be notified of flights employing the MAX. <br/>