Lion Air flight 610 took off from Indonesia on October 29th. A few minutes after take-off, the pilots received a warning that the craft was in danger of stalling. The nose seemed like it was being forced downward. Twelve minutes into the flight, the plane crashed into the java sea, killing all 189 people on board. A similar black box report was seen after the Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashed and killed 157. But what’s interesting is that these two crashes are of the same airplane-the Boeing 737 Max. In two days after the flight 302 crash, all 737 Max aircraft from around the world were grounded until further notice.

It all started on one fine day, when the CEO of Boeing, D Muilenburg got a call from American Airlines. American was a long-standing customer operating hundreds of Boeing’s short-haul jet, the 737. But now, they were buying the new Airbus competitor, it seemed. 400 units of the newly released A320neo which was powered by a much more efficient engine.

The a320neo was not a new aircraft. Building and releasing a new aircraft would cost a lot more and would take longer to get to the airstrips. So they just strapped on a newer engine on the existing a320, avoided FAA re-approval and pilot training, and saved money for airlines. The airlines loved saving money.

But now, Boeing was in trouble. Strapping on a newer engine under the wing was easy enough for Airbus, but Boeing had a problematically low ground clearance jet. The previous 737NGs had a heavily modified engine with electronics of the turbine pushed to the side to make space. Developing a new aircraft would take too long, so they had to somehow make the strap on the new engine on the 737, even if it is not under the wing...

Soon, Boeing announced they were building the 737 Max, a new, larger 737, with the fateful new engine. When the first 737 Max rolled out of the production line, Boeing proved that they too could teach their old dog some new tricks.

The new jet was not quick enough to prevent American from defecting, but they got a 100 unit order after that. The 737 Max was an immediate success. An already proven and trusted workhorse, with a higher range, increased capacity, and better efficiency, airlines poured in massive orders for this new jet. Add in the fact that the existing pilot and staff base for the already large 737 lineup could work on the new planes too, without being required to re-certify.

Then… the crashes happened.

Let’s break the events down from when Boeing announced the new jet. As we all know, the 737 airframe was very low to the ground, a welcome feature for airlines due to its cost reduction abilities. Read Part 1 to know more about how a lower landing gear saved airlines a lot of money.

The new LEAP engine had a new geared turbine, carbon composite blades, and crucially, larger blades, increasing efficiency by 15% and increasing size.

The new LEAP engine had a new geared turbine, carbon composite blades, and crucially, larger blades, increasing efficiency by 15% and increasing size. This was the one going into the new aircraft. But how to make it fit?

Boeing came up with the ingenious idea of mounting the engine before and above the wing on a pylon. This caused an obvious problem—the center of mass completely changed, and the new setup pushed the craft’s nose up during tests. So, Boeing, instead of taking the correct route of changing the flight setup, simply added a piece of software that would push the nose down automatically if it went too high. It was called the MCAS.

Pilots were not informed of its existence, as adding any new software to an aircraft made FAA re-approval a requirement. Only after the two crashes and extensive investigations find that the 737 Max was engulfed with scandals of suppressed employees trying to make it known to the world that Boeing's new jet was unsafe and massive corporate influence impacting the development of the jet.

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Credits: Vox, Business Insider