MAX Under Microscope


With the return to service of the Boeing 737 MAX, there is intense scrutiny on the first flights of the aircraft and even the most mundane maintenance snags rate prominent attention in the mainstream media. One of the most recent involved an Air Canada MAX that was being flown from Arizona desert storage to Montreal last week. The crew reported an engine hydraulics warning light just after takeoff and diverted to Tucson for an uneventful one-engine landing. It’s the kind of thing that happens dozens of times a day all over the world but Air Canada’s PR team had to respond to a flurry of media inquiries.

“Modern aircraft are designed to operate with one engine and our crews train for such operations,” the airline soothed in a statement. The aircraft remains parked in Tucson over the holiday weekend until the problem can be sorted out. Transport Canada approved modifications to the aircraft’s flight control system last week that resulted from two fatal crashes in late 2018 and early 2019 that killed 346 people. There won’t be any revenue flights in Canada until later in January after crews are trained and the aircraft are taken out of mothballs. Passenger flights resume in the U.S. on Dec. 29 with an American Airlines flight.

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