EDITORIAL: President wise to ground 737 MAX airplanes

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin (WA)

March 14-- Mar. 14--President Donald Trump on Wednesday did what the that Federal Aviation Administration should have done sooner -- ground the all Boeing 737 MAX airplanes.

This was a smart move for the safety of Americans and for Boeing in the wake of two devastating crashes -- the latest on Sunday -- that have killed 346 people.

Further deaths would be unacceptable.

And a third incident would have been blow so crushing to Boeing as a business that it might not recover for years. That would be a deep economic blow to all of Washington state.

At this point, Boeing and airplane safety experts must pinpoint why Boeing's newest aircraft crashed Sunday in Ethiopia and in October in Indonesia.

As the FAA resisted grounding the MAX airplanes earlier this week, other nations took action.

In addition, and perhaps more importantly, two of the largest unions representing flight attendants demanded the airplane grounded. The flight crews were simply sharing the concerns of jittery passengers fearful of flying on a MAX.

None of this means that Boeing is at fault. It simply means that caution must rule the day.

This is essentially the stand Trump took when he seemed to push the FAA. Although, the FAA quickly and wisely got on board with decision.

"Hopefully (Boeing will) very quickly come up with the answer. But until they do, the planes are grounded," Trump said.

Boeing officials announced they supported the temporary suspension of MAX operations in the United States and around the globe.

"We are supporting this proactive step out of an abundance of caution," Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said. "We are doing everything we can to understand the cause of the accidents, in partnership with the investigators, deploy safety enhancements and help ensure this does not happen again."

Sunday's crash in Ethiopia, which occurred shortly after takeoff and killed all 157 people on board, occurred five months after a crash in Indonesia, which killed 189 people minutes after takeoff. Data from the October crash showed that pilots were fighting against an automated system that repeatedly pushed the airplane's nose down due to a faulty sensor.

The data from Sunday's crash should yield more insights into the 737 MAX, which is the latest version of Boeing's 737 airplanes. The first completed MAX plane was delivered in 2017, and there are now nearly 400 in operation around the world, according to The Seattle Times. Many airlines are awaiting delivery of the airplane as Boeing has a backlog of 4,661 MAXs orders.

What the investigation of the two crashes reveals will be critical to whether those orders are ever filled and Boeing's future.

But taking the time to do an investigation now is far preferable to the panic that would occur following a third disaster.

It's important to pinpoint the cause of both crashes before another 737 MAX takes to the air.

Editorials are the opinion of the Union-Bulletin's Editorial Board. The board is composed of Brian Hunt, Rick Eskil, James Blethen and Alasdair Stewart

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