Hawaii Flights “Vitally Important” 737 MAX Safety Audit Looms

With Boeing 737 MAX flights all over Hawaii’s skies, this definitely caught us off-guard. There’s trouble brewing around the beleaguered 737 MAX again, as a safety audit is set to begin.

ABC (Australia) said that “The incidents, pulled from US government air safety databases, are among more than 60 mid-flight problems reported by pilots in the 12 months after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recertified the plane’s airworthiness in late 2020.”It is being reported that there have been at least 60 mid-air emergencies since the MAX planes returned to the sky.

According to the article, the NTSB will shortly announce a new audit to evaluate production oversights associated with the Max planes. They said that the “US Department of Transportation (DOT) would carry out what it described as ‘vitally important’ work.”

All but two airlines flying to Hawaii use 737 MAX, which you’ll see below.

“This comes as we, the flying public, are just getting more comfortable with the aircraft, both due to how many safe flights have occurred since the fatal crashes, and simply due to how common that plane is on Hawaii flights. The number of MAX aircraft delivered and on order is enormous. This at least to some degree shakes our own comfort about flying the MAX, until more information is revealed. On long over water flights to Hawaii, safety seems even more critical, if that’s possible. We know that at times we can be up to 3 hours from the nearest place to land when flying to and from Hawaii. Please let us know your thoughts too.” – Beat of Hawaii

Last December, you’ll recall, we reported that a WestJet 737 MAX flight from Vancouver BC to Honolulu, carrying 166 passengers, diverted to Vancouver because of an emergency related to an engine shutdown. Was that in any way related, we can’t say. The WestJet issue we previously mentioned seems on the surface to be similar in nature to other problems we are now hearing of. In another issue last December, a “United Airlines pilot declared a mayday after the system controlling the pitch and altitude of the plane started malfunctioning.”

In April last year, five months after the planes reentered service, 100 of the MAX jets were again withdrawn from flying following the discovery of cockpit electrical faults that could result in critical flight function failures.

The ABC Australia report was based on data in an FAA service difficulty reporting system and from other sources. According to them, “The MAX’s flight control system also failed on 22 separate flights, a problem which became the primary focus of the FAA’s 20-month recertification effort after the two fatal crashes.”

42 incidents were equipment malfunction-related and flight crews decided to ground the plane until issues were resolved. A variety of other serious problems and system failures were reported.

A 737 MAX problem occurred at Hawaii-centric Alaska Airlines.

It was reported that an Alaska MAX-9 was reported grounded seven different times over a period of five months. These problems were related to either navigation or communication malfunctions. At the same time, the report quotes Boeing as saying that the 737 MAX’s reliability is on par with other aircraft. Could that be true?

1.5 million safe flight hours and over ½ million flights since 2020.

One Boeing spokesperson said that since the MAX returned to service, there have been a huge number of safe flights. A Boeing spokesperson told the ABC that “The overwhelming majority of these flights have been conducted without any incident.”

Yet another Boeing former manager said that these issues “could lead to a tragedy… There are a lot of similarities between what we’re seeing in some of the reports with what happened during these two crashes.” Ed Pierson was one of the Boeing whistleblowers who raised safety issues about the 737 MAX before the first of two fatal MAX crashes. This was also reported on by NY Times.

Only two airlines definitely don’t have 737 MAX flights to Hawaii.

Hawaiian Airlines and Delta Airlines are the only two airline standouts of those flying to Hawaii that don’t have a single 737 MAX aircraft in their fleet. Alaska, American Airlines, Southwest and United Airlines are all Boeing MAX customers.

Alaska Airlines 737 MAX:

Alaska has 24 of the 737 MAX 9 planes in their current fleet. They have 121 orders pending, including 15 MAX 8, 46 MAX 9 and 60 MAX 10. The airline uses their MAX 9 planes in addition to its prior generation 738 and 739 planes, on Hawaii routes.

The airline addresses their 737 MAX fleet and safety in this video:

American Airlines 737 MAX:

American Airlines has a fleet of 41 737 MAX 8 planes, and has further agreed to the purchase of 30 more. We aren’t aware of whether American is using their MAX fleet for Hawaii flights, although it is entirely possible that they do. We primarily find them using Airbus A321 in addition to wide-body aircraft to and from Hawaii.

Delta Airlines:

The company has no MAX aircraft in their fleet or planned.

Hawaiian Airlines:

Hawaiian has no Boeing MAX aircraft in their fleet, and they have none on order.

Southwest Airlines 737 MAX:

Southwest has 79 MAX 8 aircraft in their current fleet. 439 more are on order. Southwest has always planned for the MAX to be its Hawaii workhorse since their first order was placed years ago. That’s clearly still the case today. As a result, these 737 MAX planes dominate their Hawaii flight schedule.

United Airlines 737 MAX:

UAL has 16 of the 737 MAX 8 in their fleet as well as 3o of the MAX 9 variant. Their order backlog consists of 74 MAX 8, 49 MAX 9, and 250 MAX 10 planes. United uses these planes (as well as others), on their extensive, mixed-aircraft, Hawaii route network.

We welcome your input.

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