Prof. Avižienis: Boeing Airplanes Crashed Due to Lack of Extra Sensors
Two new Boeing 737 MAX airplanes crashed with the loss of 346 lives because Boeing did not install a pair of redundant Angle-of-Attack (AoA) sensors in addition to the original two AoA sensors that are on both sides of the 737 MAX nose. This assertion has been presented on June 22 at DSN 2021, the 51st Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks that is being held virtually from Taipei, Taiwan on June 21-24, 2021. The author is Algirdas Avižienis, Ph.D. (U. of Illinois, 1960), who is a Senior Researcher and Rector Emeritus at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) in Kaunas, Lithuania as well as Distinguished Professor Emeritus of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Dr. Avižienis further asserts that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States disregarded the recommendation of an International Committee composed of experts from the USA, the European Union, and 8 other major countries. That “JATR” Committee (that was chartered by the FAA) strongly recommended that fault tolerance (implemented by using redundant components) should be used in the Boeing 737 MAX airplanes before they are certified to fly again after a 20-month grounding.
“The FAA did not mention the JATR Report at all and did not require AoA sensor redundancy in the “Final Rule” document that stated what Being must do in order for the 737 MAX airplanes to be certified to fly again. Another major mistake by the FAA in the “Final Rule” document is the claim that “additional redundancy” is not needed for 737 MAX flight control. That implies that such redundancy of AoA sensors already exists in the 737 MAX, but it does not exist. The 737 MAX flying today has two non-redundant AoA sensors, just like the 737-100 had in the 1960s”, Prof. Avižienis claims.
The professor argues that the “Final Rule” document needs to be corrected by removing the mistake and referencing the JATR report. At the virtual conference in Taipei, Prof. Avižienis presented the causes of the two Boeing 737 MAX crashes and discussed the FAA “Final Rule” document. The scientist invited Boeing representatives to attend the conference, providing them with the opportunity to react to the presentation, but the company did not respond.
