Before You Call It Minor, Check What It Can Stop

WestJet says it has seen no in-service events from the software issue the FAA flagged on the 737 MAX. The same issue is holding up certification of the MAX 10, which had been widely expected in October. ✈️

The software comes from GE Aerospace and affects automated flight guidance during a go-around, when pilots abandon a landing and climb away to try again. The FAA plans a review board to assess the safety risk. Asked how long a fix might take, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said, "Is that weeks, days, months? I don't know."

The airlines have landed in different places. WestJet flies MAX aircraft with the software and says its procedures and training cover the situation. United has none of it in its fleet and is not accepting deliveries with that version.

They are answering different questions. WestJet is deciding how to operate aircraft already in service, while United is deciding what it will accept. The FAA must assess the safety implications and whether the issue has been sufficiently resolved to certify a new model.

The same split shows up when a technical assessment becomes a program status report. The component team might have a sound basis for its rating, but that rating alone tells leadership little about whether the issue could prevent the next approval or handover.

A technically minor issue can still hold up the whole program if it blocks the next gate.

As a final readiness check before a go-live, I ask the team taking over to walk one customer order through from start to finish. I watch where they reach for a workaround, because that shows me which open issues they will have to live with, whatever rating the build team gave them. A workaround may be acceptable, but only if the people inheriting it have agreed to carry it.

So before I let an issue be called minor in a program report, I'd want to know which gate it touches: a regulator's approval, a customer's acceptance, the handover to operations or a contract milestone. Then I'd want to know what evidence closes it and who has the authority to accept that evidence.

A fix can be quick to write and still slow to accept, and the schedule follows the acceptance.

On your last go-live, which issue marked minor turned out to be holding a gate?

Reuters: https://lnkd.in/gMj6dKMg