I am surprised no one has started a topic on this a/c. Two fatal crashes in the last 5 months.
Y'know, as an A&P, duly licensed by the FAA, what's been going on with the MAX has been striking me as very wrong. With the first incident, there should have been an immediate grounding off all others of that type until an emergency repair has been developed. Happens with every other type, and not because the incidents hit the mass media, such as what happened at Burlington Airport around 1990. Here is the Cliff's Notes version of that incident.
I was walking from the hangar at Burlington, Washington Airport just as 45Delta, a Beech 18 that was owned by Methow Air Service making it's final cargo delivery for pickup by UPS. As I watched him(I used to work for Methow, and knew most of the pilots at that time, and knew them to be good sticks, even on the Beech 18 Westwinds, a mod of the Twin Beech that was considered a ground looping fool, making it a bird not very popular with the pilots), and as he touched down, the left wing dipped, and the engines roared as he panicked and firewalled the throttles, and he rotated back up, and as he gained altitude, the left mlg swung freely, and having worked on Beeches, knew that the retraction strut must have broken loose at on end or fell off(it didn't).
He began an orbit of the air port in order to consult with home base, and as he went overhead, I saw the left main wheel sitting at a strange angle, and as the UPS van had arrived to picvk the freight up, I walked to him and told the driver that the plane jsut had an accident(I pointed at the bird, and he saw the main, too), and that there might not be a pickup that day, so he left.
45 Delta also left, having gone back to Paine Field in Everett, where, after declaring an emergency, and waiting for the runway to be foamed. The boss said no foam, so the Beech just greased on in, the left prop being turned into scrap, an some aluminum scraped off the bottom. And with that. that little emergency was over, she was hauled back to the hangar, landing gear repaired, and she went back to freight hauling.
With this incident, all Beech 18s were immediately grounding pending the completion of the investigation.
No news or any other kind of announcement, other than the EAD the FAA issued.
Had there been a crash................................................
What failed was the bottom connection of the landing gear retraction strut had failed completely. There was no warning, completely unexpected. This was due to the age of the aircraft, and nothing else.
Why has this been happening to Boeing birds lately? I've been hearing of similar incidents(near crashes and other squawks on other Boeing birds)that the birds seem to have been getting a pass?
O, and the pilot of 45Delta? A month later, he came in, flying 45Delta, and I was able to hear his thoughts(commonly referred to "hangar flying"), and the only other thing that had to be done, besides the repairs, was to get the seat cleaned and his pants replaced, because since he was flying at gross, and had a goodly amount of fuel onboard, when that wing dipped, he literally shit, because he realized he might not have had enough time for his life to flash before his eyes.
And the passengers of a 737MAX died.
Boeing is referred to by many of us mechanics as "The Lazy B" I wish they'd work a bit harder.