Singapore lifts its ban on the Boeing 737 Max

Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, CAAS has lifted the ban on the Boeing 737 Max as of today (6 September 2021). The ban was lifted after technical assessments and evaluations was completed.

CAAS imposed the ban on the 737 Max back in March 2019 after two fatal accident involving the 737 Max, being Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which resulted in 346 fatalities.

The Lion city was not the only country which imposed the ban. Europe, along with the United States and other countries, has also banned the aircraft after the two incident which occurred within a five month period.

Image Credit: Jun Jie

The Boeing 737 Max was fitted with the new Leap 1-B engine, which was located much further in front of the wings. This resulted in the aircraft to pitch skywards. To compensate the pitch, the Maneuvering Characteristics Argumentation System (MCAS) was installed to help bring the pitch down.

However the MCAS tends to overcorrect the pitch, resulting in the plane to pitch downwards more and was the principal cause to the two fatal accidents.

CAAS has issued a directive to Singaporean operators that intend to operate the Boeing 737 Max. In order to operate the Max, local players must comply and implement all required actions stated in the FAA Airworthiness directive and the CAAS directive. The directive includes ground and flight training elements specified by the FAA's special training for the Max flight crew, with additional simulator training to ensure pilots are adequately trained to handle emergencies.

Singapore Airlines, being the only operator locally that operates the Boeing 737 Max after acquiring them from SilkAir, must satisfy CAAS before the flag carrier is able to operate the aircraft.

Foreign airlines which wishes to operate the 737 Max into Singapore must also comply to a set of safety requirements.