World News

Boeing 737 Crash Results in Deaths of all 157 Passengers

Editor Jesse Startcher

A Boeing 737 Max 8 plane flying across Ethiopia to Kenya, crashed on March 10th, 2018. All 157 aboard the plan were killed on impact. This however, was not the first incident with this plane model.

In October, another Boeing 737 Max 8 model crashed after its take-off from Jakarta, Indonesia. Again, all passengers aboard were killed, only shortly after take off, 189 died. This has caused many issues of course for Boeing, shown by their stocks plummeting, but also for many airline companies and countries.

Many are starting to believe that the new model may be major safety hazard, understandably. In fact many airlines and nations have begun grounding the model, including China, India, Europe, and the U.S.

So what exactly happened? Are the two crashes connected or similar in any way? In all honesty authorities are not too sure. The only information released about the Ethiopian crash is from air traffic control, who stated the pilots had requested to land after only three minutes of air time, stating that the plane was going to uncontrollable speeds. Minutes later the plane would crash.

As for the Indonesian crash, supposedly there was indeed a major fault found in the plane, its automatic safety system. It is reported that the plane descended and rose over 24 times as pilots tried to fight the automatic system that was keeping the nose of the plane down.

Southwest Airlines, who fly primarily Boeing 737, made the decision to ground all 31 of the Max 8 model aircraft in their fleet. Their CEO, Gary Kelly, issued an apology to customers, following the the grounding, as it had caused many flights to be cancelled.

Boeing itself also released a statement, saying that they “continue to have full confidence in the safety of the model”. However they have also called for the FAA to call for a temporary grounding of all 737 Max models, at least until they can figure out any issues.

The 737 model was a massive success for Boeing, in fact, it counts for up to a third of the company's profits. However many question the company’s choice to keep building on it, as the model is well over 50 years old. Old design choices on the model even get in the way of new innovations, so it is questionable as to why Boeing doesn’t just build a new model from scratch.

Although the loss of life is tragic, Boeing will try to continue to push the model. Many are hoping that they will be able to fix the issues with the model, but some also believe the model needs to be scrapped, and that Boeing needs a new model built from the ground up, instead of an outdated 50 year old design.