Glad that they caught this one! The proposed remedy seems reasonable enough.
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I remember learning about the rudder hardover in cold conditions, many years ago.
This is a new one though.
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I am a staunch Boeing loyalist, but really? The Max needs to go- and so does the bean counting culture with it. Put engineers back in charge, make solid engineering and safety #1, and tell the shareholders that will give them better returns due to more sales. bean counting is for chumps. Get the 797 done and don’t screw this one up!
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One: That’s bad!
Two: 20,000 hours on the plane over 20 years flying with 100s of different pilots and not once have I experienced this or heard of it happening. And I mean not once has there been even a casual hint. Not a “have you ever heard…” Never a “Hey the last guy I flew with said…” Nothing. Zilch. Much of that flying was winter ops in the US, Canada and Hokkaido.
Three: The incident in Newark was my airline and I never heard peep about it. We have an internal publication (Flight Safety Update) that outlines every mechanical safety issue that has occurred system-wide in the previous two weeks.
Four: This was explained but just to be clear—the “rudder hardover” issue was a separate thing and unrelated.
This happened obviously or the NTSB wouldn’t be making a stink about it. But it needs to be put in perspective. Our brains are filled to the brim with news of Boeing problems. It’s given us the confirmation bias that each bit of news is indicative of a fatal flaw.
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Pretty sure it was already making the rounds in the tech publications months ago, I do remember hearing about this quite a while back, I want to say pre-summer.
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Do you fly the NG or the Max? My personal opinion is the NG is solid and the Max is the problem child here, but shares some common parts, which is why they lumped the NG in with it. Or at least that’s how it feels given the available data.
Does that sound about right or do you think the Max is solid and this is just a mountain from a mole hill?
Unrelated as they are two separate issues and the hardover problem was fixed.
But still related in that it involves the Boeing 737, the rudder and cold temps.
Also, the procedure to overcome the stuck rudder may lead to an unintended hard deflection of the rudder, much like the rudder hardover issue. The difference being one was uncommanded and the other may be unintentional, but the outcome has the potential to be similar.
I flew the NG. But the rudder and rudder actuators are the same.
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