Model Airplanes

Even after evidence emerged implicating a new automated flight-control system in the Indonesia disaster, the industry message was that pilots would be able to overcome glitches by following common emergency steps.

“Our pilots are trained to deal with any of these issues,”

United Continental Holdings
Inc.

Chief Executive Oscar Munoz said at a March 7 aviation event in Washington. “Just fly the darn airplane—that’s what they’re taught.”

Three days later, a 737 MAX flown by United code-share partner Ethiopian Airlines nose-dived into the ground after six minutes aloft, an eerie replay of Indonesia’s Lion Air crash.

Much remains unknown about Boeing’s internal response during the roughly five-month window between the two crashes. But recent congressional testimony, as well as interviews with executives, regulators and others suggest the American aviation industry had an overly U.S.-centric view about how to handle safety issues, and often a dismissive view of overseas pilots.

After the first crash, a top Boeing official told a gathering of U.S. pilots they wouldn’t encounter similar problems, contending they were better trained than their counterparts in other countries, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

And the company was slow in coming up with a fix to the system identified as a major factor in the two crashes, according to people briefed on the details. Even though Boeing said engineers had been

Article source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/between-two-deadly-crashes-boeing-moved-haltingly-to-make-737-max-fixes-11554164171

Running from March 27 through April 7, the 43^rd installment of the Cleveland International Film Festival is in full swing. With a theme of “Welcome,” #CIFF43 is spotlighting 211 feature films and 237 short films representing 71 countries—but even with such a diverse cast of characters, there is no shortage of selections with Cleveland connections.

Enter the aptly named “Local Heroes” lineup, which showcases a little something for everyone—from star power (I See You, starring Helen Hunt and filmed in Greater Cleveland, and Wild Nights with Emily, in which Shaker Heights native Molly Shannon plays Emily Dickinson) to compelling Cleveland personalities (like caddie Mike Kiely, featured in Loopers: The Caddie’s Long Walk, and transgender bodybuilder Mason Caminiti, featured in Man Made).

There’s also a healthy dose of emerging local talent, with Cleveland 48-Hour Film Project Competition winner Conrad Faraj’s short Two for Twenty featured, and local filmmaker Carl Kriss selected to pitch his Lordstown documentary for the If/Then American Midwest Documentary Short pitch competition. The St. Edward High School film program also has two shorts being shown at CIFF.

For a full list of #CIFF43 films about Ohio, shot in Ohio, or made by Ohioans, check out all of the films in the “Local Heroes” competition. Plus, show some Cleveland love by supporting these four films screening this week (and get $1 off your purchase by entering code FRESH at checkout):

Float: Cleveland Heights native

Article source: http://www.freshwatercleveland.com/street-level/ciff040119.aspx

Boeing executives are offering a simple explanation for why the company’s best-selling plane in the world, the 737 Max 8, crashed twice in the past several months, leaving Jakarta, Indonesia, in October and then Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in March. Executives claimed on March 27 that the cause was a software problem — and that a new software upgrade fixes it.

But this open-and-shut version of events conflicts with what diligent reporters in the aviation press have uncovered in the weeks since Asia, Europe, Canada, and then the United States grounded the planes.

The story begins nine years ago when Boeing was faced with a major threat to its bottom line, spurring the airline to rush a series of kludges through the certification process — with an underresourced Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) seemingly all too eager to help an American company threatened by a foreign competitor, rather than to ask tough questions about the project.

The specifics of what happened in the regulatory system are still emerging (and despite executives’ assurances, we don’t even really know what happened on the flights yet). But the big picture is coming into view: A major employer faced a major financial threat, and short-term politics and greed won out over the integrity of the regulatory system. It’s a scandal.

The 737 versus 320 rivalry, explained

There are lots of different passenger airplanes on the market, but just two very similar narrow-body planes dominate domestic (or intra-European) travel. One is the

Article source: https://www.vox.com/business-and-finance/2019/3/29/18281270/737-max-faa-scandal-explained