magnumpi

dbd33

I don't usually know what type of plane I'm on so I don't suppose I'd feel anything at all.

Teaandtoday5

scrubbedexpat091

Nah, the high priced tickets are on the same plane

Might be old, the A320 I was on from Palm Springs was 20 something, but old doesn't mean unsafe.

Atlantic Xpat

I flew the MAX, ohh, probably 10 times last year. Mostly across the Atlantic from St John's to Heathrow. Living here, you have little option as its the only plane that AC flies transatlantic from here and many of the St John's - Toronto flights are also on the MAX. I have no immediate travel planned but the family and I are heading back to Blighty this summer and flying via Halifax on Westjet who also, of course, operate 737 MAX across the pond.

Statistically, I know that flying in any aircraft is pretty safe - as the saying goes, the most dangerous thing is the drive to the airport. However, this latest crash does give pause for concern. I hope that some light is shed on root cause and mitigation before I load all those that I care most about on one of the things.

Commentary of various fora (pprune as an example) is that the MAX is bit of a design stretch too far for what is a rather vintage airframe. (first flown in '67 I think). It's been adopted by AC and others to fit the skinny long route need - flying longer distances, cheaper than a 777 or 787 where passenger loads don't justify the larger aircraft. So it's deservedly popular with airlines. Boeing have something like 4000+ Max in their order book and essentially can't build them fast enough. Of course if this latest crash proves to be same root cause as the Indonesian one last year, all bets are off and I can see the entire fleet being grounded. (China has already done this for all MAX operated there, as have various airlines around the world.)

magnumpi

scrubbedexpat091

So its now China, Indonesia, and Singapore government's grounding the 737 MAX, airlines who have chosen to do so include Ethiopian Airlines, Cayman Airways, GOL, Aerolineas Argentinas, Aero Mexico. Some 130 aircraft worldwide are now grounded either due to government action, or airlines choosing to do so.

Vulcanoid

Boeing: "There's absolutely nothing wrong with them, but we are rushing out a software patch."
US regulator: "There's absolutely nothing wrong with them, but we are mandating changes that must take place by April."

At Christmas I was kinda disappointed most of our planes getting between the coast and interior were Q400s not 737s, due to noise and size, now not so much....

scrubbedexpat142

As there is no evidence of structural failure an inspection is unnecessary.

Jingsamichty

I'm currently flying Ryanair weekly on the 737-800, but I understand that their first 737-MAX aircraft are due for delivery from May. Hopefully there is clarity on the issues before then... it does sound likes a controls glitch. Must be bad if experienced pilots can't recover the plane manually.

scrubbedexpat142

"Experienced" could be the key word here (as in specific, training, etc).

Snowy560

I'm an extremely nervous flyer. Two days before this happened I booked flights to Quebec City via Montreal. On a 737 MAX 8.
At first I thought I thought I'd just see how the investigations go but now I'm watching lots of countries banning the aircraft and am uneasy that the US/Canada isn't doing the same I'll probably pay the charges and rebook the flights.

Jingsamichty

The UK has just banned the 737-MAX...

caretaker

I don't think I've flown in a 737-Max 8, but have done a dozen or so domestic flights in the other 737 models on Westjet and always thought they were good. I had the feeling there was lots of power available and even in very poor weather conditions the pilots used it to get us through. If there is a design flaw in the Max 8 software somewhere I trust they'll sort it out before I have the chance to get on one. A lot of the AC flights from Regina to Vancouver and Penticton are in turboprop Dash-8's and since it's only a few hours I don't mind that too much; also my cousin was a test pilot on the Dash-8 and proclaimed it the safest plane in the air ("I tried to crash it.")

Atlantic Xpat

Including overflights of UK airspace by the MAX which seems...odd. Fly Norwegian who is a big MAX operator has also suspended flights. One can't imagine that AC and WJ are going to be that far behind surely? Although the FAA hasn't taken any action as yet.

To quote John Ostrower, an Aviation Journalist, "If it was Southwest and American and not Lion Air and Ethiopian five months apart, the 737 Max fleet would’ve been grounded by Sunday evening." i.e. if these accidents happened in the USA with the largest MAX operators, do you think we'd still be talking about "if" they are grounded?