8A z WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019z USA TODAY NEWS
Boeing is hoping its 737 Max jetliner
will win approval to return to the skies
by the end of the year, after it was
groundedfollowing two crashes. But
don’t expect to fly in one just yet.
Entire plane types have been ordered
out of service before – the McDonnell
Douglas DC-10 in 1979 and Boeing 787 in
2013, for example – but usually only for
mechanical or maintenance reasons.
This time, the issue involves rewrit-
ing code in the flight computerto handle
just about any circumstance.
As if that isn’t enough, there’s the is-
sue of retraining pilots to understand
and deal with the changes, which could
add days or weeks to the grounding,
with aviation authorities in each nation
taking their own approach.
It’s not just “an airplane problem, but
a problem of the interaction between
the airplane systems and its pilots,” said
Christopher Hart, former chairman of
the National Transportation Safety
Board in a statement last month to the
Senate Commerce Committee. “Every
country that licenses and trains pilots
must be involved in the decisions to
ground and to return (its 737 Max
planes) to service.”
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburghas
predicted at least one of the world’s avi-
ation safety authorities will lift ground-
ing orders by the end of the year. The
Federal Aviation Administration, with
which Boeing says it is working with
closely, would likely be the first.
There’s a good reason, however, why
Southwest, United and American air-
lines have taken the Max off their sched-
ules through the critical holiday travel
period. Southwest, in fact, last week
pushed back the plane’s expected re-
turn to March 6.
While Boeing is testing the rewritten
software ahead of an OK from the FAA,
no one has disclosed what officials
think should be done to instruct pilots
on the changes.
The fastest method would be to let pi-
lots review the revisions on training
programs they can access from personal
computers. But given the outcry over
the development of Boeing’s flight-con-
trol program – and the 346 lives lost in
two Max crashes – the FAA may require
training in simulators.
“At this time, the FAA appears to be
leaning toward the computer-based,
while other regulators are holding out
for full flight simulator training,” said
John Cox,a retired USAirways pilot who
is now an aviation-safety consultant.
One big problem: At present, few 737
Max simulators exist, which could signifi-
cantly slow down the retraining process.
But sometimes pilots are trained on sim-
ulators for previous versions of jetliners if
the instruction can be done in conjunc-
tion with computers, according to the Eu-
ropean Union Aviation Safety Agency,
Europe’s version of the FAA.
Cox said he thinks training on per-
sonal computers would be sufficient if
pilots can clearly understand changes
to the system believed to have factored
in the two crashes.
That system, the Maneuvering Char-
acteristics Augmentation System or
MCAS,was supposed to work in the back-
ground in order to make the 737 Max feel
to pilots like previous generations of the
popular airliner, reducing training costs.
Instead, it overrode pilots’ commands on
both of the doomed jets and repeatedly
pushed the nose of the plane toward the
ground. The result: Lion Air Flight 610
crashed in October 2018, and Ethiopian
Airlines Flight 302 crashed in March.USA TODAY EXPLAINS
2 big reasons
Boeing 737 Max
is still grounded
Boeing is hoping its 737 Max jetliner will win approval to return to the skies by
the end of the year, after it was groundedfollowing two crashes. THE MOTLEY FOOLCompany hopes jet will
be ready by year’s end
Chris Woodyard
USA TODAY
How’s the Boeing 737 Max
different?The 737 Max uses new engines that
allow it to fly farther and use less fuel.
Because the engines have a larger di-
ameter, they had to be mounted higher
on the wing. That changed the plane’s
handling characteristics under some
circumstances.How did Boeing compensate for
the new engines?It introduced a new software feature,
the Maneuvering Characteristics Aug-
mentation System, or MCAS, that was
meant to kick in under certain circum-
stances to make the plane fly like previ-
ous versions of the 737. The system
was intended to operate in such a sub-
tle way that pilots would not realize it
was there.What went wrong?What started as a subtle system to
keep the plane properly trimmed was
made to act more aggressively after
testing. Even if the pilots tried to over-
ride, the software system could kick
back in repeatedly. That’s what hap-
pened when the Lion Air jet crashed,
taking 189 to their deaths in the Java
Sea. It was later revealed that details of
MCAS were not included in Boeing’s
737 Max flight manual, so pilots
wouldn’t have known about it.What happened then?Boeing revealed details of the system.
But in March, Ethiopian Airlines jet
crashed after takeoff from Addis Aba-
ba, killing 157. Once again, pilots were
unable to overcome the MCAS system
despite desperate attempts to keep the
plane aloft, leading to the crash. Sever-
al international aviation agencies or-
dered the Max grounded. The FAA
didn’t join them at first, then acqui-
esced.What did Boeing do about the it?Boeing has redesigned MCASso it only
actuates a single time and can be easily
disengaged. Boeing’s engineers also
have revised the system so it will take
readings from both of the plane’s an-
gle-of-attack sensors, not just a single
one as originally designed.These
changes are under review by the FAA.What has the government done?There have been several investigations
and House and Senate hearings. An
NTSB report said planes’ crews were
confronted with several cockpit alarms
simultaneouslythat would have been
hard to sort out, raising the issue of
confusion. Another review from the
FAA, NASA and international aviation
authorities raised questions about how
much the FAA passed off its inspections
to Boeing employees.Neither mouse nor deer, this Viet-
namese ungulate is shy, walks on the
tips of its hooves and was just spotted in
the wild for the first time in almost 30
years.
Environmental group Global Wildlife
Conservation said the silver-backed
chevrotain,known as the Vietnamese
mouse deer, had been recorded in the
wild only five times until a team of re-
searchers recently rediscovered it out-
side Nha Trang.
Distinguished by its silver sheen, this
chevrotain is the about the size of a rab-
bit and was known to live in an area of
Vietnam rife with poaching snares,
Global Wildlife Conservation says.
The silver-backed chevrotain, one of
10 chevrotain species, was first de-
scribed in 1910 when four Vietnamese
mouse deer were collected, Global Wild-
life Conservation says. The fifth was not
spotted until 1990, and no others had
been seen since. The group had listed
the animals on their list of top 25 most
wanted lost species.
Wildlife experts heard from locals
and park rangers that chevrotains with
grayish backs had been seen in the area
of southern Vietnam, so Global Wildlife
Conservation and its team set up three
camera traps for five months in forested
areas.
“We had no idea what to expect, so I
was surprised and overjoyed when we
checked the camera traps and saw
photographs of a chevrotain with sil-
ver flanks,” An Nguyen, who led the ex-
pedition, said in a statement.
The team of researchers from Glob-
al Wildlife Conservation along with
Southern Institute of Ecology and
Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife
Research published their findings
Monday in the peer-reviewed Nature
Ecology & Evolution.
Little is known about this chevro-
tain. Though called a mouse deer, the
silver-backed chevrotain is actually an
ungulate, meaning hoofed mammal.
The small mammals weigh under 10
poundsand are the world’s smallest
ungulates, Global Wildlife Conserva-
tion says. The solitary animals also
have two fangs.
“For so long this species has seem-
ingly only existed as part of our imagi-
nation. Discovering that it is, indeed,
still out there, is the first step in ensur-
ing we don’t lose it again,” Nguyen
said.
In the paper, the researchers recom-
mend further camera-trapping in the
area to record the chevrotains and de-
termine the size of their population
and distribution. The scientists also
called for more research into the
threats in the area where the chevro-
tains live, to better protect them.Two silver-backed chevrotains were photographed by a camera trap in 2018 in a
forest in south central Vietnam. The species hadn’t been seen in 30 years.AP
Tiny ‘mouse deer’ seen
for first time in 30 years
Ryan W. Miller
USA TODAY
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