Originally Posted by
WHACKMASTER
Ran into a Fed today who’s working directly on getting the MAX back into the air. Straight from his mouth:
- AA, SWA, & UAL have had a chance to fly the MAX sim in MIA with the new software installed. All three airlines are content with it.
- The FAA anticipated giving the MAX the green light sometime in April, but other countries are holding things up and slow-rolling. Ethiopian is claiming that their crew was not able to disconnect MCAS through the stab trim cutout switches.
- The FAA doesn’t want to release the aircraft back into operation until others countries do the same due to public perception concerns.
So all this straight from a Fed who’s working on the MAX issue right now.
No surprise there at all....bureaucracies doing what they do best: CYA. This issue has become so geo-politicized on so many levels. The Feds already have a black eye over this--there's no way they go out on a limb and be first/alone in saying GTG. And Lord only knows what kind of concessions the Chinese will hold out for from Boeing & USA, Inc.
So in light of all that, I'm thinking six more months....minimum.
I also don't see how new-hire classes & upgrades can continue into the summer, as over-staffed as we already were going into this whole mess.
