American plane-maker Boeing has promised to act on safety recommendations for its 737 MAX aircraft made in a new report by Indonesian investigators on the deadly Lion Air crash a year ago.
The company also voiced its grief over the Oct. 29, 2018 crash after takeoff from Jakarta that killed all 189 people on board, a response that marked a shift in tone compared with its reaction to a preliminary report last November.
“We mourn with Lion Air, and we would like to express our deepest sympathies to the Lion Air family,” Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement on Friday.
He also , outlined changes planned for the so-called MCAS cockpit software that has been widely linked to the accident and the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet five months later.
“We are addressing the (Indonesian accident agency) KNKT’s safety recommendations and taking actions to enhance the safety of the 737 MAX to prevent the flight control conditions that occurred in this accident from ever happening again,” he said.
With dozens of lawsuits pending, Boeing has not admitted liability. But in March it acknowledged that MCAS was one link in a wider chain of events when an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX also crashed, leading to a worldwide grounding of the fleet.
In their final report on Friday, Indonesian investigators highlighted design flaws in MCAS software while also revealing errors or confusion among crew and faulting airline operations.
The statements book-ended one of the most challenging years in Boeing’s history, with the plane-maker battling to restore trust and facing over $8 billion in costs.
Muilenburg said Boeing has been humbled by the two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, in which a total of 346 people perished.
He now faces US Congressional hearings next week under growing pressure to rebuild confidence in Boeing and its workhorse jet, having had his chairman role removed earlier this month.
