What Boeing’s CEO Says About the 737 Max 8 Plane Crashes

Dennis Muilenburg said a software update for the model should be available by the end of the month.

boeing CEO
Families of victims from Kenya and Rwanda lay flowers on March 15, 2019, as they visit the crash site of the Ethiopian Airlines operated Boeing 737 MAX aircraft which killed 157 passengers and crew onboard. (TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images

After two Boeing 737 Max 8 planes crashed within five months of each other, the company’s CEO released an open letter to airlines and passengers about the current investigation into what went wrong.

“We’re united with our airline customers, international regulators and government authorities in our efforts to support the most recent investigation, understand the facts of what happened and help prevent future tragedies,” Dennis Muilenburg, the chief executive of the Chicago-based plane maker, wrote in his letter, Business Insider reported.

Since the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, Boeing said it sent a team of investigators to the country to assist in the investigation. May experts say the Ethiopian crash had many similar properties to  to the crash of a Lion Air flight in October. This week, French authorities began examining the flight’s data recorder, also known as a black box, for more clues, according to the news site.

The causes of each crash are still unclear but some have speculated that a software system developed for Boeing’s latest Max planes may be at fault.

“Soon we’ll release a software update and related pilot training for the 737 MAX that will address concerns discovered in the aftermath of the Lion Air Flight 610 accident,” Muilenburg wrote. “We also understand and regret the challenges for our customers and the flying public caused by the fleet’s grounding.”

The 387 Boeing Max 8 planes in operation worldwide have been grounded since the second crash last week.

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