RENO, Nev. – Boeing executives met privately with the pilot unions at American and Southwest Airlines in the past week in a bid to assuage concerns they raised about the new Boeing 737 MAX 8 following the deadly Lion Air crash in Indonesia. The airlines operate the same aircraft involved in the Oct. 29 accident, and their pilot groups publically criticized Boeing for failing to disclose a new safety feature on the plane. The control feature, an automatic anti-stall system, repeatedly pulled the plane's nose down and the pilots struggled to control the plane, according to a preliminary report from Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee Wednesday, the USA Today reported.
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The Intelligent Aerospace take:
November 29, 2018-With professional pilots concerned about the safety of the new Boeing MAX passenger jets, the company made the right move to sit down with union representatives. According to the preliminary report by the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee, the jet's automatic safety system repeatedly pushed the nose down.
Dennis Trajer, Allied Pilots Association president, told the USA Today, "It was a productive meeting filled with information exchanges and an opportunity to voice our concerns over the MCAS system. Boeing listened, and in our opinion, they have an aggressive agenda regarding positive steps to address our concerns."
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Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Intelligent Aerospace
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