Would you fly on a 737 MAX plane?

[yellowblue20]

Booking a flight where the cheapest flight is on a 737 MAX, if I want to fly on another plane It is minimum £120 more.

Given its history, would you feel comfortable flying on a 737 MAX?

I am very anxious

Have you seriously just told a Boeing pilot with 25 years experience under her belt to 'do her research'? 😂

What's your experience in aviation?

I read it properly. My post doesn’t contradict any of what her post says. Still think it’s bullshit that someone would disrupt the take off to the point that the plane had to go back to the gate.

Oh the irony in this post, when you think you know better than the professionals.

Of course I'm aware of the serious issues at Boeing. I'm also very much aware of the safety requirements in European aviation, and the fact that thousands of flights take off and land safely every single day on a 737 Max.

Tell me the last time a European (including UK) commercial airline had a fatal accident caused by an aircraft failure?

It is bullshit. Promised in writing my hole. Aborting a take off at the last minute over one stroppy passenger? Nah.

It's very easy to find out which model of aircraft you'll be flying on. An aircraft engineer would know this.

Does make you wonder if something will happen to Sam Salehpour (a third whistleblower).

This is very true and slightly reassures me that my upcoming 737 8 flight will be okay 😳 The only argument against it is the fact that before the first crash you could have told the people boarding that plane how good the odds were etc and then before the second crash you’d easily reassure people by saying of all the extra checks that had been done, the crash had been investigated etc.. Yet it still happened again

Yes, it’s been so long since I flew anywhere, I’d fly away on anything. Yes. Why not. It’s boring where I am.

@BlessedKali “If you don't understand whyx then do your research.” No, I genuinely don’t understand why there are at least 3 posts on the first page of this thread by posters stating that they would not fly on ANY Boeing. What about B737s? Are they dangerous? Which ones? Why? What about Boeing 777s? I currently am licensed to fly these and fly 3 different variants. What are your thoughts on a 200 with GE engines vs rollers at a hot and high airfield? What about 757s? Old workhorses, made before the current Boeing problems, but - well - old. But so are some of the triples. And the new ones, are they better because they are new? What about the battery issues on the Dreamliner? (I’m licensed to fly these too.) Are they an ongoing concern or have they fixed those? How many days safety and emergency procedure training on Boeing aircraft have you had this year? How many days in a simulator? How many hours on webinars with other pilots, being educated by experts? How many safety bulletins have you had in your inbox? How many hours spent airborne, over 5 different continents?

It is newsworthy atm that there are significant problems with Boeing management. I’m not blind, deaf or stupid. However, I also fly regularly with highly qualified pilots - my colleagues over the years have included CAA inspectors, air accident investigors, test pilots. I’ve worked with people who have been in incidents, accidents and crashes you’ll have seen on the news - I know how when any incident happens in aviation it is dissected to the nth degree and everyone learns from it. We talk about the issues affecting aviation on a daily basis. I am not aware of any issues affecting ALL Boeing aircraft at this moment in time that would warrant the statements made on the first page of this thread.

I do my research every time I go to work, and I learn from the people whose jobs it is to keep aircraft flying. Not from Wikipedia and the press (to give you a heads up, there is a big issue bothering pilots atm, and it has been vaguely reported in the press recently, but does not give the full story. The press is not reflective of what is actually going on.) BlessedKali what are your qualifications, and where are you getting your information from? While you are rustling up an answer, I’ll be getting yet another Boeing jet ready to take into the air.

Any chance you could do an AMA? That would be extremely interesting.

I'm really happy for you that you fly Boeing planes, it comes across very clearly that it means alot to you - congratulations. It a great achievement you have every right to be proud of yourself.

I asked you if you had researched what the OP was discussing, because you still have not actually talked about the point in hand (which is not your reams of personal experience, but the ongoing federal investigations into Boeing)

Do you have any relevant comment about that?

No.

Given that absolutely everything else seems to have gone to shit and not work as it's intended, I see no reason why air safety should be any different.

Never read a bigger load of bullshit in my life.

They do . They have the police meet you at the terminal and arrest you. They don’t drop you off and wave you a jolly goodbye.

Who was this supposed email even from?
And how could he on one hand know enough to make a fuss about the plane type, yet not recognise what type it was until he had boarded? I am sure this happened..in his head.

I’d fly on it if the CEO of Boeing was sat next to me. I try and fly Airbus if I can.

Oh stop embarrassing yourself.

It's not just those two 737 MAX crashes, killing all on board so horribly, it's what was revealed about Boeing and their current practices in the aftermath. Those poor pilots. The door blowing out of the Alaskan 737 MAX (new and improved!) mid-flight was just the icing on the cake. I rarely fly, but would try my best to avoid Boeing nowadays.

Imagine the conversation.

CA: Captain, this is Amanda in economy. I'm afraid we have to get off the runway and go back to the gate.
Pilot: WTF? We're on the damned runway. I'm not missing my take off slot.
CA: But he says we promised he wouldn't be on a 737-max, and he's got proof. He's just shown me the email.
Pilot: Oh, well in that case end of discussion, we'll have to drop him back at the terminal. I'll just ask those planes behind me to reverse and let me squeeze through.

That's probably what the people on the Titan thought as they went to see the Titanic last year.

Yes. I did last weekend. Obviously I survived.

And in the small print in any reservation confirmation it will say that the airline reserves the right to substitute an aircraft should it be necessary. There’s all sorts of reasons why they do that - the intended plane is delayed on its inbound journey, the intended plane is found to have a technical fault, not enough tickets sold to warrant a plane of that size so a smaller one is used, no available pilot trained for that aircraft due to staff shortages (sickness, strike, etc). Buying a ticket does not guarantee you will be on that plane. Or in that seat. It’s merely a contract to take from A to B, nothing more.

For £120 more I'd probably pay to fly on a non-MAX aircraft. I think Boeing have had some serious safety concerns for a while around the MAX fleet but mostly I'd miss an Airbus PTU sound.

I'd happily travel on a non-MAX Boeing aircraft. Classic 737? Absolutely. There's just something about the MAXes that doesn't sit right with me.

I think their safety record is 3 fatalities per million flights. I got that info from reddit 😆

And yes, I'd fly on one, to answer your question.

I am a very nervous flier (didn't fly for 10 years until a new partner got me back on one) and went to Sri-Lanka in Feb, I googled to find out what plane it was and would not have flown on a max.

@Yellowhammer09 “Classic 737? Absolutely.” Would that be the 737 of the rudder hard over flaw, resulting in 2 fatal crashes and several other documented serious incidents? At what point did this aircraft type, which was subjected to at least as much scrutiny and suspicion at the time, morph from ‘death trap’ to ‘safe option?’ It was never grounded and carried on flying, although hardovers continued to happen while they investigated and resolved the reasons for the issue. Comparisons can be made between the 737 rudder issues of the 90s and the 737 MAX issues of its early years. (I have about 1800hrs experience on the 737 btw, gained a couple of years after the 2 crashes.)

When an aircraft crashes, for whatever reason, it is not just the manufacturer alone who investigates and follows up. The airline, aviation authorities of the country of origin, and country of incident all get involved. An aircraft is not simply deemed safe or unsafe due to anecdotal evidence. The corporate practices of the manufacturer can be very dodgy indeed (as Boeing’s are atm) but this doesn’t change the very stringent external testing that an aircraft must go through before being considered acceptable for flight.

A crash provokes an emotional response - we all know that air transport is relatively safe but crashes do happen, just as we know that we are probably ok driving our cars but crashes do happen. This knowledge, and acceptance to some extent, of rare crashes does not make it any less shocking when a crash occurs. It does not mean though that the only solution is to never fly that entire aircraft again. Investigations are carried out and appropriate fixes made.

Many of the big crashes of recent years have been as a result of the increase in automation and the way cockpit information is presented to and interpreted by pilots. This is not restricted to just Boeing, although they are the manufacturer atm who has introduced automation that has been cited as part of the problem. The Air France disaster, with the loss of an A330 hull and over 200 people, is the classic example of this. The response of manufacturers, aviation authorities and airlines is to increase training and pilot awareness of such matters, as well as thorough investigation into the aircraft itself. This is what is happening now with the Boeing 737 MAX and the situation today with them is very different to the situation 5 years ago.

Now, @BlessedKali, you still haven’t said what your experience and qualifications are. Clearly you think I am undereducated in the matter compared to your lofty knowledge - you’ve actually told me to do my research. But I’ve laid out where my information comes from (it’s actually my paid job to ‘do my research.’) What about you?