Boeing 737 Max
The Boeing 737 MAX is a narrow-body airliner grounded worldwide for nearly two years after two fatal crashes: Lion Air Flight 610 off Indonesia in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 near Addis Ababa in March 2019, together ki…
The Boeing 737 MAX is a narrow-body airliner grounded worldwide for nearly two years after two fatal crashes: Lion Air Flight 610 off Indonesia in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 near Addis Ababa in March 2019, together killing 346 people. Investigators traced both crashes to a flight-control system called MCAS, which repeatedly pushed the aircraft's nose down in response to a single faulty sensor reading, and to gaps in how the system was certified and disclosed to pilots. The aircraft returned to service in stages from late 2020, after Boeing redesigned MCAS and regulators imposed new training requirements.
MCAS's original certification and legal responsibility for its consequences are distinct questions the record keeps separate. Boeing's 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice concerned alleged deception of the FAA during certification; it resolves one criminal charge, not the design, oversight, and disclosure questions the two accident investigations raised, several of which remain the subject of ongoing civil litigation.
Questions and claims
- C-1 — "MCAS caused the crashes" vs multi-factor accident causation(question / dispute)
- C-2 — ET302: actual institutional disagreement over the initiating AOA failure(question / dispute)
- C-3 — ET302: agreement on MCAS, disagreement on completeness of human-factor analysis(question / dispute)
- C-4 — Certification process followed ≠ certification process adequate(question / dispute)
- C-5 — Design compliance ≠ safety(question / dispute)
- C-6 — Pilot response as mitigation vs fail-safe design(question / dispute)
- C-7 — "Pilots weren't told about MCAS" requires date and document scope(question / dispute)
- C-8 — FAA March 12 vs March 13, 2019(question / dispute)
- C-9 — Original MAX configuration vs post-grounding MAX configuration(question / dispute)
- C-10 — Accident cause vs legal fraud case(question / dispute)
- C-11 — Congressional report vs technical regulator/accident findings(question / dispute)
Why not?
- "MCAS caused both crashes" is too compressed.(semantic trap / refusal)
- "The AOA sensor failed" is not one identical mechanism across both accidents.(semantic trap / refusal)
- "Pilot error" and "design error" are not mutually exclusive categories.(semantic trap / refusal)
- "Certification failed" can mean different things:(semantic trap / refusal)
- "FAA certified MCAS" is too loose.(semantic trap / refusal)
- "The MAX was recertified" is common shorthand.(semantic trap / refusal)
- "Boeing admitted causing the crashes" is not an accurate summary of the corporate criminal case.(semantic trap / refusal)
- Accident-investigation findings ≠ criminal liability ≠ civil liability ≠ congressional findings.(semantic trap / refusal)
- The Ethiopian final report ≠ uncontested international consensus.(semantic trap / refusal)
- "Return to service" ≠ proof the original configuration was safe.(semantic trap / refusal)
Temporal bounds
Core technical/certification corpus: 2012–2023. Legal/procedural posture: through 2026-08-09, because the Boeing criminal case evolved materially after the original 2021 DPA.
Sources
- MAX-S01 — Lion Air JT610 Final Accident Investigation Report
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S02 — Ethiopian Airlines ET302 Final Accident Investigation Report
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S03 — BEA comments on the Ethiopian final report
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S04 — NTSB comments on Ethiopian final report
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S05 — NTSB Safety Recommendation Report ASR-19-01
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S06 — Joint Authorities Technical Review (JATR)
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S07 — House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee final investigative report
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S08 — DOT OIG audit of FAA certification/delegation
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S09 — Boeing November 6, 2018 Flight Crew Operations Manual Bulletin
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S10 — FAA Emergency Airworthiness Directive after JT610
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S11 — FAA grounding order and evolving March 2019 position
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S12 — FAA return-to-service package / AD 2020-24-02
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S13 — FAA Flight Standardization Board / training record
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S14 — Boeing public MCAS/software statements
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S15 — DOJ 2021 DPA / criminal information
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S16 — Boeing criminal case procedural evolution, 2024–2026
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S17 — U.S. House Boeing 737 MAX hearing record
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- MAX-S18 — Wikipedia comparison surface — OPTIONAL
Authored in demo-corpus-twelve/boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
Inspect
Research-basis references identify material in the underlying research dossier. They are not admitted Counterpedia claims, citations, or source bindings.
- Research pack
- demo-corpus-twelve
- Artifact
- boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- Artifact kind
- dossier
- SHA-256
- 472c35bfe669274b5440ceb04c974f6fc8fce52b0af65865e13f4805a70669d3
- Standard
- counterpedia.lead/v0.1
- Research artifact
- demo-corpus-twelve / boeing-737-max-demo-corpus-dossier-v0-1
- Artifact SHA-256
- 472c35bfe669…
- Sidecar state
- current
- Research basis
- MAX-S01, MAX-S02