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NEWS |Transport Canada test pilots
raised questions about the Boe-
ing 737 Max as far back as 2016,
but the government decided to
approve the plane first and ad-
dressthoseissueslateramidpres-
sure from the manufacturer, ac-
cording to internal government
documents.
The revelations were con-
tainedindocumentsmadepublic
Thursday at federal hearings
probing Canada’s endorsement
of the deadly plane. Flawed soft-
ware that forced the 737 Max into
fatal nosedives has been blamed
for two crashes, including one off
the coast of Indonesia, which
killed 189 people in late 2018, and
another in Ethiopia that killed 157
people last March, including 18
Canadians.
But when Transport Canada
test pilots flew the 737 Max in
2016, they found the plane’s auto-
mated anti-stall system unusual
andraisedquestionsabouthowit
operated, the documents show.
They didn’t realize at the time
that they were looking at the
MCAS, or the manoeuvring char-
acteristics augmentation system
- the software behind the two di-
sasters.
However,whenTransportCan-
ada began asking for clarifica-
tions on how the new system
worked, and why the 737 Max
didn’t require a new operating
certificate because it flew differ-
ently than previous models, Boe-
ing sidestepped the issue.
The company said in 2017 it
was in a rush to get the plane cer-
tified because it was set to deliver
planes to WestJet, Air Canada and
Sunwing Airlines in a matter of
months.
“Please note that in order to
meet its delivery commitments
to the Canadian operators, Boe-
ing has requested Transport Can-
ada to issue [the plane’s airwor-
thiness certificate] in June 2017,”
the documents say.
“To avoid delivery delays to
our operators,” Transport Canada
agreed to approve the plane, and
stated that the concerns raised
would “remain open.” Transport
Canada then approved the plane,
and the questions about the soft-
ware weren’t dealt with.
The documents raise new
questions about why Transport
Canada didn’t ground the plane
due to safety concerns early on.
Conservative MP Todd Doherty,
who tabled the documents at the
hearing, told the federal Trans-
portation Committee that it
would have taken only one coun-
try to raise alarms about irregu-
larities with the plane, rather
than rely on the U.S. Federal Avia-
tion Administration’s certifica-
tion of the Max.
In a November, 2018, docu-
ment – dated a few weeks after
the first crash – Transport Canadaasked Boeing for more informa-
tion about the software, even as
the plane was allowed to contin-
ue operating.
“Transport Canada requests
further details to understand
whether the potential exists for
any single failure ... to cause an
inadvertent nose down pitch
command from the stall identifi-
cation system, which is consid-
ered to be catastrophic,” the doc-
uments say.
It was at that point that Trans-
port Canada learned more about
the MCAS, which was intended to
stabilize the 737 Max but could
force it downward if it was fed in-
correct data from a malfunction-
ing sensor.
The emergence of the docu-
ments at the hearings led to a
heated exchange between Trans-
port Minister Marc Garneau and
Mr. Doherty, who asked the min-
ister why the plane was allowed
to fly if there were outstanding
questions from test pilots, which
Boeing had not resolved.
Mr. Garneau and other Trans-
portCanadaofficialssaidthedoc-uments were from a “Concern Pa-
per” filed by the regulator to Boe-
ing,butcontendedthattheissues
raised by the test pilots were bet-
ter characterized as “questions.”
“I’m aware of the Concern let-
terandI’malsoawarethatwehad
decidedthatwewouldstillaccept
it as an ongoing open file,” Mr.
Garneau said. “It’s not necessarily
saying we’re not going to accept
this aircraft, we’re saying there
are some things that we need to
better understand.”
Mr. Doherty said the test pilots
were correct to flag their con-
cerns, but Transport Canada
failed to follow through on get-
ting answers about the automat-
ed software, which could have
saved lives. “It took one person to
say, ‘Wait a second, we’re not get-
ting the answers to the questions
that we had,’ ” Mr. Doherty said.
Under decades-old aviation
agreements, Transport Canada
relied heavily on the FAA to scru-
tinize the 737 Max, and has the
option to validate that regulator’s
work. However, congressional
hearings in the United Stateshave shown that the FAA out-
sourced much of its oversight of
the new plane’s design to Boe-
ing’s own engineers. That left
Canadaandothercountriesunin-
formed about the fatal MCAS sys-
tem.
“Not all of the information was
provided to us on the MCAS; that
was something that we found out
later,”Mr.Garneausaid.“Itmakes
us realize that we’ll have to be
quite careful and pay attention to
these things during future certifi-
cation processes.”
Mr. Garneau said thegovern-
ment is now examining its air-
craft certification system, and has
promised a revamp of how it ap-
proves new planes. Proposed reg-
ulations that would have seen
Canada surrender additional
scrutinytotheFAA,includingtest
flights, are now being reversed,
and the government intends to
build more safeguards into the
aircraft vetting process.
“This isn’t just about the 737
Max,” NDP MP Taylor Bachrach
said. “It seems to be about a more
systemic problem of self-regula-
tion and a lack of due diligence.”
Pressed by opposition MPs at
the hearing over whether he
trusts the FAA, which has been
heavily criticized by U.S. lawmak-
ers, Mr. Garneau said Transport
Canada has learned that it needs
to “be a little more skeptical in
the future.
“I think that we have all
learned in the last year some very
important lessons,” Mr. Garneau
said.
Mr. Garneau, who met with the
families of the 18 Canadians who
died in the Ethiopian crash last
month, said he regretted not ar-
ranging a meeting sooner. The
ministeragreedtoameetingafter
The Globe and Mail reported that
the families had been asking for
nearly a year.
“I apologized to them person-
ally for not meeting with them
earlier,” Mr. Garneau said. “The
culture at Transport Canada ... is
one of dealing with technical is-
sues. We should have been more
sensitive to the fact that there
were humans also involved here.”TransportCanadawaswarnedon737Maxin
AnAirCanadaBoeing737Max8arrivesinTorontoonMarch13,2019,thedaytheflawedmodelwas
groundedaftertwofatalcrashes.CHRISHELGREN/REUTERSTestpilotsquestioned
jet’sbehaviour,but
Ottawagaveapproval
underpressurefrom
Boeing:documents
GRANTROBERTSON