American flew journalists from Dallas to the
airline’s maintenance center in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
where crews explained how they are bringing
the planes out of storage and making FAA-
required changes.
American is likely to be the first carrier to put
passengers on Max jets, beginning Dec. 29 with
once-a-day round trips between New York and
Miami. In the meantime, the airline plans flights
with employees on board.
Some relatives of people who died in the
crashes — and who still believe the plane is
unsafe — expressed outrage at both Boeing
and American over what they termed a
publicity stunt.
Zipporah Kuria, a British citizen whose father
died in the second Max crash, said Boeing and
the FAA should instead turn over documents
on changes made to fix the plane and how they
were tested. The company has withheld the
documents, saying they cover trade secrets.
“I feel like Boeing is using the press to leverage
public trust instead of actually genuinely
earning public trust,” she said. “I’m really
disgusted by the whole thing and the fact that
American Airlines would pay for that. Their focus
is more about the profit and corporate interest
than it is about consumer safety.”
Some people who lost family members believe
that the FAA erred by not accepting all the
recommendations made by pilots and aviation
professionals during a public comment period
on its proposal to let the plane fly again.
Scrutiny of the plane has focused on a flight-
control system called MCAS, which repeatedly
pushed down the nose of the plane before both