The Globe and Mail - 11.03.2020

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WEDNESDAY,MARCH11,2020 | THEGLOBEANDMAILO NEWS | A

The deadly flaw in the Boeing
737 Max could have been “easily”
detected with a simple test be-
fore the new plane flew, a federal
hearing learned on Tuesday, the
first anniversary of a crash in
Ethiopia that killed 157 people,
including 18 Canadians.
A leading Canadian aviation
expert told the hearings in Otta-
wa that changes to aircraft regu-
lations, requiring manufacturers
to test whether seemingly insig-
nificant design tweaks affect the
plane’s overall operation, would
expose the kind of flaws that
caused two 737 Max disasters.
The plane, a new model intro-
duced by Boeing in 2017, was
grounded last year after crashing
twice in the span of five months.
The first disaster killed 189 peo-
ple near Indonesia in late 2018,
followed by a second crash one
year ago in Ethiopia.
In both cases, the plane was
brought down by software de-
signed to stabilize the aircraft
that instead forced the 737 Max
into a fatal nosedive.
Gilles Primeau, an expert in
flight-control systems who works
as an industry consultant, said
when Boeing designed the soft-
ware, it connected it to a single
sensor that measures the angle
of the plane in flight. Although
there are two angle of attack
(AOA) sensors on each side of
the plane, Boeing didn’t test
what would happen if the lone
sensor controlling the software
malfunctioned – as it did in both
737 Max disasters.
Had Boeing engineers tested
how the failure of that sensor
might affect the overall oper-
ation of the software, and there-
fore the plane as a whole, they
would have been able to see the
737 Max had a catastrophic
weakness, Mr. Primeau said.
“Testing of critical systems in-
dividually or in silos is insuffi-
cient,” Mr. Primeau said, calling
for a regulatory change to fix the
problem. “With this rule, the
simple test of a faulty AOA sen-

sor would have easily uncovered

its multiple effects, forcing archi-

tecture changes on the 737 Max.”

The House of Commons

Transport Committee convened

the hearings to discuss changes

to Canada’s aircraft certification

system. Transport Canada relied

heavily on the U.S. Federal Avia-

tion Authority (FAA) to scruti-

nize the 737 Max, and endorsed

the plane without examining the

software.

Under aviation regulations,

manufacturers can apply design

tweaks to an existing aircraft cer-

tificate if they are not considered

critical changes, a process

known in the industry as “grand-

fathering.” Mr. Primeau said air-

craft manufacturers are some-

times reluctant to perform full

aircraft tests on design tweaks if

they are not deemed major alter-

ations.

“It’s amazing the discussions –

endless – that I have seen in my

career. They might as well turn it

around and go and test it, it

would have taken less time and

resources,” he said.

His proposal to end the grand-

fathering process on any design

change that interacts with other

functions of the plane echoes

the findings of an international

panel of regulators that investi-

gated the 737 Max disasters last

year. Mr. Primeau also proposed

that new aircraft be examined by

“an international team of ex-

perts” where regulators such as

Canada and Europe would dis-

patch people to work with the

FAA on certifying Boeing planes.

Under decades-old aviation

agreements, the FAA performs

the certification on new Boeing

planes, while Canada and other

countries verify that work if they

see a need. However, in the case

of the 737 Max, that system cre-

ated troubling blind spots for

Canada.

Crash investigations have

shown that Boeing withheld in-

formation about the software,

known as the manoeuvring char-

acteristics augmentation system,

or MCAS, from pilots and air-

lines, and left key details out of

the flight manual in an effort to

get the plane certified faster. Ow-

ing to a series of deregulation

moves in the U.S., the FAA gave

Boeing’s engineers increasing

authority to certify their own de-

signs, tantamount to self regula-

tion.

Transport Canada officials tes-

tified two weeks ago they be-

lieved the 737 Max was safe

when thegovernment approved

the plane, but officials did not

scrutinize all areas of the aircraft,

including the software.

“I can assure you if we had

any of that knowledge at the

time, we would have been dig-

ging a lot further,” David Turn-

bull, Transport Canada’s nation-

al aircraft certification director,

said.

While some relatives of the 18

Canadians who died in the Ethio-

pian disaster attended the hear-

ing Tuesday, others gathered at

the crash site near Addis Ababa

to mark the anniversary of their

loss.

Michael Deer, an airworthi-

ness specialist with Bell Textron

Canada Ltd. said Transport Cana-

da has the ultimate power to de-

termine if changes to an air-

craft’s design are significant and

should under go more rigorous

testing.

However, Jodi Diamant, chief

engineer of airworthiness and

certification at aircraft engine

manufacturer Pratt & Whitney

Canada said Transport Canada is

at a disadvantage if Boeing

wasn’t forthcoming about the

software in the FAA certification

process. “They would have been

trying to find a needle in a hays-

tack, then there’s limited time to

do it,” she said.

Asked what could be done dif-

ferently at Boeing, Mr. Primeau

referred to internal company e-

mails made public in the U.S.

that show at least one engineer

questioned the logic of connect-

ing the powerful 737 Max soft-

ware to a single sensor that

could malfunction. “I’d like to

know who that guy is,” Mr. Pri-

meau said. “He should be put in

charge.”

737Maxflawcould‘easily’havebeenfound:expert

Aviationindustry

consultanttellshearing

thatsoftwareproblems

wereidentifiable,but

engineers’testing

was‘insufficient’

GRANTROBERTSON

ChrisMoore,wholosthisdaughterintheEthiopianAirlinescrashlastyear,standsoutsideTransportCanada’s

headquartersinOttawaonTuesday.PATRICKDOYLE/REUTERS

ADDISABABAFamilieswholost

lovedonesaboardEthiopian

AirlinesFlight302visitedthe

crashsiteonTuesdaytomark

thefirstanniversaryofthe

tragedy,adayafterinterim

resultsofaprobefocusedon

faultysystemsontheBoeing

737MAXjet.

Theaccidentkilledall

peopleonboardwhenthenew

Boeingplungedintofarmland

sixminutesaftertakingofffrom

thecapital.Itwasthesecond

accidentinvolvingthe737MAX

infivemonths

Peoplefrom33countrieswere

aboardFlight302,manyof

themworkingwiththeUnited

Nations,andhundredsofrela-

tivesandfriendsfromacrossthe

worldtravelledtoEthiopiafor

thememorial.

Familiesfromcountriesin-

cludingCanada,theUnited

States,Ethiopia,Kenya,Uganda,

ItalyandFranceattendedthe

ceremonyatthecrashsite,

aboutathree-hourdrivefrom

thecapital,AddisAbaba.

Theprogramincludedatree

plantingandthereadingoutof

victims’names,organizerssaid.

Policesetuparoadblocka

kilometrefromthesitetopre-

ventthepublicfromattending.

“Wearetraumatizedallover

again,”saidHuguetteDebets,

wholostherhusbandJackson

Musoni,fatheroftheirthree

children.

The737Max,Boeing’sbest-

sellingaircraft,remainsground-

ed.Theplanemakerhaslost

billionsofdollarssincethe

EthiopiancrashandanOctober,

2018,accidentinvolvingIn-

donesia’sLionAir,whichkilled

all189peopleaboard.

REUTERS

VICTIMS’FAMILIESMARKONEYEARSINCE

ETHIOPIANAIRLINESPLANECRASH

British Prime Minister Boris John-
son is facing a caucus revolt over
the government’s decision to al-
low Huawei Technologies to sup-
ply some components for the
country’s 5G wireless network.
A group of Conservative MPs,
led by former party leader Sir Iain
Duncan Smith, has criticized the
government’s decision, arguing
the Chinese company poses a na-
tional security risk and that it
should be banned from the fifth
generation network.
During a debate in the House of
Commons on Tuesday, Sir Iain
launched a blistering attack on
Huawei, saying the company had
spent years stealing technology
and undermining its competitors.
“Nearly two decades ago, the
Chinese set out to dominate this

sector by underbidding other

companies,” he said.

Allowing Huawei equipment

to be used in the British 5G net-

work was a “statement of the ab-

sence of thought byany govern-

ment,” he added.

The rebel MPs flexed their

muscle later on Tuesday by intro-

ducing an amendment to an un-

related telecommunications bill.

The amendment called for

Huawei equipment to be banned

within two years and it came

close to being adopted, losing by

just 24 votes with 36 Tories sup-

porting it.

These MPs have vowed to keep

up the pressure, and they’ll get

another chance to press their case

in a few weeks when thegovern-

ment introduces legislation to

implement its decision on Hua-

wei.

The revolt is a blow to Mr. John-

son, who is already treading a fine

line on Huawei.

The government spent months

analyzing what to do on Huawei

before announcing in January

that it would ban all “high-risk

vendors” from core parts of the

5G network and limit them to a 35-

per-cent overall market share.

The government defended the

decision by saying Britain had few

alternative suppliers for the

equipment and that any security

concerns could be managed.

Mr. Johnson has already faced

intense pressure from U.S. Presi-

dent Donald Trump and other

U.S. officials to ban Huawei.

The Americans believe the

company poses a security threat

because it may be compelled un-

der Chinese law to help Beijing

spy or sabotage Western net-

works.

So far, a handful of countries

have introduced bans, including

Australia, New Zealand and Ja-

pan. Canada is still considering a

prohibition and Britain’s decision

could be influential.

On Tuesday, Oliver Dowden,

the Secretary of State for Digital,

Culture, Media and Sport, tried to

fend off the critics by saying the

government had heard their con-

cerns and that it was committed

to working with the United States

and other allies to develop alter-

native suppliers.

“In an ideal world there would

be no need for high-risk vendors

at all,” Mr. Dowden told the House

of Commons. “We’re setting out a

pathway to get there.”

However, he refused to give a

specific timetable for when the

country would move away from

Huawei equipment entirely.

That wasn’t good enough for

the Tory rebels, who include sev-

eral former cabinet ministers.

They demandedthe government

set a clear deadline to ban Huawei

equipment.

“This is a national security is-

sue,” said Tory MP David Davis, a

former Brexit minister who ar-

gued that Huawei got its start by

stealing trade secrets from Cana-

da’s Nortel Networks just before

the company filed for bankrupt-

cy, an allegation Huawei officials

have always denied.

“What China wants is to make

the world a more permissive

place for autocratic regimes,”

added Tory MP Liam Fox.

Several security experts have

backed thegovernment’s deci-

sion. In a January report, Britain’s

National Cyber Security Centre

said the country was in a better

position than many other nations

to mitigate the risk of Huawei.

The report said the agency has

been analyzing Huawei equip-

ment for the past 10 years, and

while there are risks associated

with it, the NCSC concluded that

it was “feasible to manage these

risks and, by doing so, increase

confidence in the telecoms ser-

vices on which the nation relies.”

CaucusrevoltputspressureonJohnsontobanHuaweifromBritain’s5Gnetwork

PAULWALDIE
EUROPECORRESPONDENT
LONDON