American Scandal - Boeing | Impact | 1

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

On October 29, 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crashes just minutes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia, killing all 189 people on board. At first, the cause of the crash is a mystery, especially since the plane was a brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg suggests the crash was due to pilot error. But soon, it comes out that a mysterious piece of software called MCAS may be to blame. Need more American Scandal? With Wondery+, enjoy exclusive seasons, binge new seasons first, and listen completely ad-free. Start your free trial in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or visit wondery.app.link/IM5aogASNNb now.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, this is Lindsey Graham, host of American Scandal. Our back catalog has moved behind a paywall. Recent episodes remain free, but older ones will require a Wondery Plus subscription. With Wondery Plus, you get access to the full American Scandal archive, ad-free, plus early access to new seasons and more. Join Wondery Plus in the W on Monday, October 29th, 2018, in Jakarta, Indonesia. Garima Sethi is standing in the hallway of her apartment, watching as her husband Bob Vesunaja finishes getting ready for work. Outside, the sky is still dark, and Sethi would rather still be in bed.

But her husband is a pilot with Lion Air, and the two of them have a tradition of eating breakfast together before his flights, no matter how early. As her husband ties the laces on his shiny black shoes, Sethi can't help but smile. They've been married for two years, but she still gets a kick out of seeing her husband in uniform. She's proud to be married to a pilot and didn't hesitate to move with him to Jakarta from their native India to support his career. When Suneja finishes tying his shoes, he walks over to meet Sethi by the door and promises to call when he lands.

This is another of their traditions. As soon as Suneja completes one of his flights, he calls Seti and tells her he's arrived. Today, he's flying to Pangkalpinang, a small city on another island in the Indonesian archipelago, about 90 minutes from Jakarta. Seti nods and gives her husband a farewell kiss. Then he picks up his flight bag and heads out the door, and Satie goes back to bed. She pulls the covers up under her chin, and just before she turns out the light,

she double-checks that the ringer on her phone is turned on, so she'll hear Suneja's call when he lands. Then she clicks off the light and drifts back to sleep. Seems like she's only just closed her eyes when her phone rings. Sadie gropes at her bedside table, finally manages to pick up. Bavie, have you arrived? Uh, hello, is this Karima Sadie? Yes, who's this?

I work with your husband. Sadie sits up. She's still half asleep and doesn't understand why someone she's never met is calling so early in the morning. What's going on? Everything okay? Well, we don't know yet, but I wanted to alert you that we're unable to find your husband's aircraft. What do you mean you can't find the aircraft? His plane disappeared off radar shortly after takeoff. We're still looking for it. It has to be a glitch, right? Something wrong with the radar?

Yes, we're hoping that's the case. Well, it has to be. I know my husband. I know how he flies. He's very safe. We know he is, but we're taking every possibility into consideration. He said the plane he was flying was brand new. Yeah, that's true. A Boeing 737 MAX 8. State of the art. Well, then I'm sure it'll pop back on radar any minute now. I should probably keep the phone clear in case he tries to call. Well, okay. I guess we'll be in touch with more information as soon as we have it. Okay. Well, thank you for calling. Satie hangs up the phone, feeling more irritated than afraid. But as she lies back in bed, she knows she'll never be able to get back to sleep. A small seed of worry has started growing in the pit of her stomach because she knows that when a plane disappears from radar

there is one terrifying possibility that it might have left the skies. It might have crashed. Get ready for Las Vegas style action at BetMGM the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for when you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat, and Roulette. With our ever-growing library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table games,

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At the center of it all, the 737 MAX, the latest season of Business Wars, explores how Boeing allowed things to turn deadly and what, if anything, can save the company's reputation. Make sure to listen to Business Wars

wherever you get your podcasts. to listen to Business Wars wherever you get your podcasts. From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American Scandal. In October 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea just minutes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia. The crash killed all 189 people on board and sent shockwaves through the aviation industry. It came on the heels of the safest year for flying on record.

And what alarmed experts most was that there was no obvious reason for the crash. The plane was a brand new model called the 737 MAX 8 that had only been delivered to Lion Air two months prior. And it was made by Boeing, one of the most trusted brands in the world. But as investigators and reporters began looking into the crash, they discovered that decades of cost-cutting, deregulation, and corporate greed had led to one of America's most storied companies gambling with passengers' lives,

while a key regulatory agency looked the other way. But in the early days after the Lion Air crash, there was very little information about what actually happened in the cockpit. Recovery teams needed to find the plane's black boxes, instruments that recorded key flight data, as well as analyze air traffic control details to understand what caused the crash. But in the meantime, theories began to form about where to lay the blame. This is Episode 1, Impact. It's October 31st, 2018, in Jakarta, Indonesia. Garima Sethi sits in her living room staring at

her laptop. It's been two days since the plane crash, and in that time she's been inundated with meetings and press requests, all while making funeral arrangements for her husband. Satie hasn't slept, she's barely eaten, and feels more like a zombie than a person. Still, she can't stop scrolling through news articles. Her husband Bavier's mother is with her too, eyes glued to the TV. Both are desperately trying to find any information that can help them make sense of what happened. Bavier's mother, Sangeeta, turns off the TV and slumps into the couch. I can't watch anymore. Can you believe what these idiots are saying? I'm sorry, I wasn't listening. What did they say? Well,

they didn't say it directly, but they're insinuating that Bavier and his co-pilot were responsible for the crash. What? They keep repeating that Lion Air is a budget airline that the U.S. banned from their airspace, that they're known for hiring inexperienced pilots. How can they say that? Bavier has almost 6,000 hours of flight time. He did his training in the United States. These reporters are so lazy. Not just lazy. What do you mean by that? You think they'd be saying these things if the pilots were from the U.S. or Europe? No. But just wait. When they find the black boxes, the truth will come out. How long does it usually take to find them after a crash?

Days, sometimes months. But just be patient. People will see that Bavier did nothing wrong. I believe that. Satie nods, but it feels like torture to have to wait for answers. So much of life is painful now that Bavier's gone. So she hopes they find the black boxes soon so they can clear her husband's name. Shortly after the crash, a team of divers is dispatched to search the ocean floor

for the black boxes. Meanwhile, a second team of on-the-ground investigators starts combing through the plane's records and radio transmissions, looking for clues. They quickly discover something interesting in the plane's maintenance log. Apparently, just the day before the crash, another pilot noted that he was having a problem with the readings from one of the plane's maintenance log. Apparently, just the day before the crash, another pilot noted that he was having a problem with the readings from one of the plane's angle-of-attack sensors. Angle-of-attack sensors are like small weather vanes that stick out from both sides of the plane's nose.

They measure the angle of the nose compared to the airspeed and assess if the plane is ascending or descending too steeply. This is crucial information because if a plane's nose is pitched too high, it can stall. But even though they're important, it's not uncommon for angle-of-attack sensors to give bad readings. They're small and can be damaged by birds, lightning, or other causes, and often need to be replaced. Based on the maintenance records, it seems that the crew working on the Lion Air MAX 8

replaced the malfunctioning sensor with what they thought was a new one. But it turns out this replacement sensor had been bought second-hand. And even though the logs indicate that the maintenance crew ran all the required tests and that the plane appeared to be in good working condition, investigators wonder if this second-hand sensor might have contributed to the accident. But there's no way to know for sure until the black boxes are recovered, which hasn't happened yet, though the recovery team is making progress. Three days after the crash, they pick up a strong signal from one of the plane's black boxes. It's cause for hope, and in the early morning hours of November 1st, 2018, a team of divers from the Indonesian Navy are in the area of the signal.

Before the sun has fully emerged from the horizon, Sergeant Hendra Suputra is already preparing to get in the water. Sitting on the edge of an inflatable boat, he checks his oxygen tank one last time. Then he pulls on his flippers, secures his mask, and looks over at his dive buddy. They exchange thumbs up and position themselves on the side of the boat before rolling backwards into the sea. When his body hits the water, Suputra feels a cool rush as his wetsuit floods.

He hears the hiss of the oxygen tank echoing in his ears, and then he starts to descend. As Suputra eases himself toward the seafloor, he can see evidence of the lives lost. Stuffed animals, loose clothes, fragments of broken suitcases. But his attention is focused on the mission at hand, locating the plane's two flight recorders. And although they're called black boxes, they're actually painted neon orange to help recovery teams spot them. But as Suputra scans the wreckage,

he sees nothing that resembles the objects he's looking for. He suspects that between the force of the impact and the movement of the ocean, the boxes are likely buried under layers of mud and silt. So when he reaches the ocean floor, about 100 feet down, Suputra begins to dig. Slowing his breathing and stretching every minute of his oxygen supply, he digs for half an hour until he spots something, a splash of bright orange peeking up from under the sand. He signals for the other diver to come over and together they're able to wrench it free from the seafloor. When they do, they can see immediately it's one of the recorders. It's about the size of a shoebox, but heavier than it looks, maybe 15 pounds. Suputra crad, it's one of the recorders. It's about the size of a shoebox,

but heavier than it looks, maybe 15 pounds. Suputra cradles it under one arm and then slowly inflates his vest so he can float up to the surface with his colleague swimming beside him. Soon they're on the surface and in a motorboat racing back to the ship. Suputra stares at the bright orange box. It doesn't look like much, but the information inside is precious, and Suputra stares at the bright orange box. It doesn't look like much, but the information inside is precious, and Suputra hopes it'll help the families of the victims get some answers about what caused this mysterious crash. When the black box reaches shore, it's immediately handed over to a team of analysts who positively identify it as the flight data recorder.

The second recorder, which captures audio from inside the cockpit, is still missing, but teams hope to recover it. Meanwhile, the analysts download the recorder's data and begin to sift through it. It's a massive amount of information, 69 hours of readings measuring hundreds of data sources collected over the last 19 flights taken by the plane. Based on the readings, the analysts are able to confirm that the second-hand angle of attack sensor was indeed broken. It sent faulty data about the nose's pitch to the plane's computer system, suggesting the plane was about to stall, even though it was not. Alarms would have been blaring in the cockpit,

and pilot Babiesunejo's control column would have been shaking violently, all inaccurately warning him of a stall. But there's something else in the data that confuses the analysts. Looking at the plane's rate of climb, it appears that something was repeatedly pushing down the nose of the plane. They can see in the data

that the pilots were pulling back on the control column, desperately trying to bring the nose back up. But over and over, the plane kept forcing the nose back down. Investigators have no idea what could cause an aircraft to behave this way, but they send their findings off to Boeing for review. And a few days later, on November 7th, pilots and airlines receive a joint safety alert from both Boeing and the American Federal Aviation Administration.

It warns pilots of the 737 MAX 8 that if the angle of attack sensor gives faulty data, it's possible that the plane's horizontal stabilizer could send repeated nose-down commands. If not addressed, these commands could lead to, quote, significant altitude loss and possible impact with terrain. quote, significant altitude loss and possible impact with terrain. Boeing also sends out instructions for what to do if a situation like this occurs. Pilots are told to turn off what's called the electric trim system. The electric trim system keeps the plane balanced in the air,

making adjustments to ensure that the nose isn't angled too far up or down. This balance point is routinely adjusted automatically throughout the flight by a stabilizer on the plane's tail. And on most flights, the trim system works smoothly and pilots don't have to worry about it. But occasionally the system fails. And when this happens, the nose can start pitching up or down incorrectly. Pilots are trained to respond to this by switching off the autonomous system and adjusting the trim manually in what's known as a runaway stabilizer procedure. The solution sounds basic enough, but aviation reporters, pilots, and other industry experts are still puzzled by what happened on the Lion air flight. They find it odd that one single failure point, the angle of attack sensor, could cause such an extreme reaction by the plane, especially when that sensor is known to be so vulnerable to damage. Historically, planes have had multiple points of redundancy, so if one sensor fails, a backup will kick in. But now Boeing seems to be

admitting that on its brand new plane, just one faulty angle of attack sensor can lead to a crash. Many pilots and aviation experts are also troubled that Boeing still hasn't explained what exactly caused the nose of the plane to push itself down over and over again, even when the pilots were apparently pulling back on the control column. With these questions in mind, crash investigators begin to shift their focus from the operation of the plane by the pilots to the design of Boeing's newest aircraft, the 737 MAX 8. And soon, pilots, journalists, and airlines who purchased the new plane begin pressuring Boeing for answers. On November 11, 2018, roughly two weeks after the Lion Air crash, Boeing responds with another written statement. And when pilot Dennis Taser sees

the email land in his inbox, he opens it immediately. Taser has flown for American Airlines for more than two decades and serves as a spokesman for their pilots union. American recently purchased a number of the 737 MAXs, so if there's something wrong with him, Taser wants to know about it. As he reads through the email, he scans for Boeing's explanation for the crash. And about halfway through, he finds a sentence that says the Lion Airplane had an erroneous MCAS activation. Taser stops reading. He's never heard of an MCAS and can't even guess what the initials might stand for. He swivels in his chair and grabs the flight crew operations manual he has for the

Boeing 737 MAX 8. It's a thick book, running over a thousand pages, and covering all the systems and procedures used in operating the plane. Taser skims the table of contents, but can't find any mention of MCAS. So he turns to the index and finds just one page number cited for that system, all the way at the end of the manual. Taser turns to the page. It's a glossary of abbreviations, and all it says is that MCAS, better known as MCAS, stands for Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System. Looking back at the email, Taser re-reads the line about the Lion Air flight's erroneous MCAS activation, and suddenly he's furious. It seems like Boeing has snuck a new system onto its planes, a system so powerful it could crash the aircraft,

and did not bother to tell the pilots about it. Now, 189 people are dead, but the planes are still being flown, and Boeing's still offering almost no information about this mysterious maneuvering characteristics augmentation system to the pilots who fly them, like Taser, who feels like this whole thing is just another disaster waiting to happen. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of music industry. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most

people only dream about. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today, I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution. I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom. But I made no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry. Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real.

From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace, from law and crime, this is The Rise and Fall of Diddy. Listen to The Rise and Fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery+. I'm Jake Warren, and in our first season of Finding, I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mom's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now exclusively on Wondery Plus. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met.

But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, Three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge, but this wasn't my time to go. A gentleman named Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me,

and it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding, and this time, if all goes to plan, we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. In the days after Boeing's November 11, 2018 memo, investigative reporters searched for information about the mysterious new system that Boeing installed on the 737 MAX 8. Soon they learned that the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, known to Boeing engineers as MCAS, automatically corrects the pitch of the plane.

If MCAS detects that the plane is ascending too steeply, it'll push the nose back down to prevent stalls. But reporters are shocked to learn how much control MCAS has over the plane. On previous versions of the 737, if the pilot felt the nose being pushed down, they could override the automatic system by pulling back on the control wheel. But the MCAS software does not respond to the control wheel. The only way to override MCAS is to switch off the electric trim system completely. And it has to be done within 10 seconds of MCAS taking over the plane.

If a pilot waits any longer, they'll risk losing control of the aircraft. But none of this has ever been communicated to the pilots who actually fly the 737 MAX. And pilots like Dennis Taser are outraged over it. They start to file complaints with the Aviation Safety Reporting System. And major news outlets like the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal start publishing articles criticizing Boeing for withholding crucial safety information

about its new plane. The situation quickly becomes a public relations disaster for Boeing. But the company sticks to its talking points. On November 13, 2018, about two weeks after the Lion Air crash, Boeing CEO Dennis Mullenberg appears on Fox Business, and when the host questions him about the decision not to tell pilots about MCAS, Mullenberg suggests that such action wasn't necessary, insisting that faulty MCAS activation is the same as any other situation involving a runaway stabilizer, and that experienced pilots should know how to handle it, saying, we provide all the information that's needed to safely fly our airplanes. The Fox Business host accepts Mullenberg's response, but pilot Dennis Taser does not.

As spokesman of the Pilots Union and American Airlines, Taser has a way with words, and when he talks to the press about the MCAS issue, he doesn't hold back. He calls the system, among other things, the beast inside the Boeing 737 MAX. It's only more bad press for Boeing, so to address the concerns of Taser and other pilots, Boeing announces plans to send its Vice President Mike Sinet around the country for a series of safety meetings to go over details with pilots at each of the major U.S. airlines. It's the first time a high-level Boeing executive has ever visited Dennis Taser's union, the Allied Pilots Association, and Taser hopes it's a sign that the company is taking their concerns seriously. And on November 27, 2018, Taser arrives at the union offices in Fort Worth, Texas, armed with an array of questions.

He settles into a seat in the conference room, along with the other pilots who are gathered around the table. They're all eager to hear what Sennett is going to say. But when Sennett walks in, he's trailed by another man who's introduced as a lobbyist from Boeing. Taser shifts uncomfortably in his seat. Seems odd that Boeing would bring a lobbyist to a safety meeting, but for the moment he's willing to give Boeing the benefit of the doubt. The conference room has a projector, and Taser assumes that Sinet or the lobbyist will use it to present a PowerPoint

or share some graphs or data of some kind. But the Boeing reps just sit down at the table, empty-handed. Taser looks around the room. It's quickly becoming apparent that this meeting is not going to be an explanation of the MCAS system they were hoping for. This meeting is all spin. Taser steals a glance at the union president. Before the meeting started, he said that if he felt Sinet wasn't being totally transparent, he would start recording the meeting. And now, as Sinet moves to the front of the room,

Taser notices the president discreetly hitting the record button on his phone. Sinet kicks off the meeting by noting he's seen the news reports about how Boeing added a system to the plane but didn't tell anybody. He then says the discharge is overblown. MCAS is just a bit of software. He adds that a trained pilot and MCAS work side by side. But Sinet is quickly interrupted by one of the pilots at the table. With barely contained anger, the pilot points out that it was impossible for the

Lion Air pilots to have been trained on MCAS when they didn't even know it was on the plane. SINET acknowledges this, but Boeing didn't want to overload crews with unnecessary information. That comment gets a dry response from another pilot a few seats down from Taser, who notes that learning about a system that could kill you seems like the opposite of unnecessary. Taser and the other pilots around voice their agreement. Sinet just shakes his head, though, arguing that a malfunctioning MCAS is just one possible cause of a runaway stabilizer. And the checklist is the same no matter what the cause is. cause of a runaway stabilizer. And the checklist is the same no matter what the cause is. If a pilot correctly identifies the issue as a runaway stabilizer, Sennett doesn't understand why the

cause should matter. The solution is the same. When he hears this, Taser can't stay quiet. He points out that there are thousands of things that can go wrong on a commercial plane. And in the heat of the moment, when the control wheel is shaking and alarms are blaring, it takes time to diagnose what that problem is, especially if you've never been told to expect this kind of problem. The other pilots grumble in agreement. They lob questions at SINET, laying out possible scenarios when MCAS might kick in and asking what they should do in each one of them. SINET tries to assure them that their concerns are being addressed. He tells them that Boeing is working on a way to prevent MCAS from activating if it's only getting information from one angle of attack sensor.

He assures them all that new software will be ready in about six weeks, and it will allow pilots to override the system more easily. But one of the pilots notes that six weeks is still an awful long time. Why don't they ground all 737 MAX 8s until the software has been updated? Sinet says that's not necessary, since investigators haven't determined that the MCAS malfunction was the sole cause of the Lion Air crash. For Dennis, Taser, and the other pilots in the meeting, it's a dissatisfying answer. But unless they plan on refusing to fly, all they can do is wait for a more permanent fix. The day after Boeing's meeting with pilots in Fort Worth,

Indonesian investigators released their report on the Lion Air crash. They say that one cause was the pilots' lack of knowledge about the MCAS. But they also blame the crash in part on Lion Air's maintenance team, who failed to detect that the replacement second-hand angle of attack sensor was faulty before putting it into service. The report takes some of the pressure off of Boeing, and their planes keep flying. But in Indonesia, family members of the victims hold protests, demanding that regulators ground the 737 MAX 8. The pilot's mother, Sangeeta Suneja, calls for pilots to get more training on the MAXs.

But both demands go unheeded. Months pass, planes keep flying, and there's still no software update from Boeing. As Dennis Taser prepares to get back in the cockpit of a Boeing 737 MAX 8, he starts to feel something he hasn't felt in years, a case of the nerves. Taser started his career in the Air Force and flew tanker planes during Operation Desert Shield in the early 90s. He's flown older model Boeing 737s for over a decade and faced all kinds of weather conditions and technical issues. But looking at that graph of the Lion Air flight from the data recorder, seeing the way the MCAS shoved the nodes of the plane down over and over again,

that gave Taser chills. He's never experienced a commercial aircraft fight him like that. But he is a professional, and flying the MAX 8 is part of his job. So when Taser boards a MAX 8 at Chicago's O'Hare Airport in January 2019, he steadies himself by going over the runway stabilizer checklist. The lives of the people on board depend on his ability to execute it perfectly. Settling into the cockpit, Taser turns to his co-pilot and notices that he also has a worried expression on his face. Oh, Lord, first time

back on a MAX? Yeah, can you tell? Well, frankly, I'm nervous too. Let's just go over the plan if we get a bad MCAS activation. Totally unlikely, but it might help settle our nerves. Well, you read my mind. I keep reviewing the checklist, and it seems like the main thing to do is just cut the power to the electric stabilizer as fast as possible. Yeah, yeah, right. But if we do do that, we're going to have to rely on the manual trim wheel for the rest of the flight. That's not a huge deal, but I think we could try something else. What's that? Well, I've been reading about MCAS, and apparently it only works if the wing flaps are up. So if things get really wonky, all we have to do is retract the flaps. And that would prevent MCAS from working? It looks that

way, but I'll admit it's not what Boeing says to do. Still, I think it's our best bet. Rather than try to fly the rest of the route with manual trim, I think we should just retract the flaps and head straight back to the airport. I mean, it makes sense to me. It does feel a little weird to second-guess Boeing, though. I mean, remember? If it's not Boeing, I'm not going. Yeah, well, it's not the same company it used to be. A flight attendant then tells Taser

that all passengers are on board. Taser looks over the co-pilot. They nod, agreeing on a game plan. When Taser gets the all clear, he uses his plane back from the gate and heads to his assigned runway. Then, as he accelerates down the tarmac and pushes the plane into the air, his hands tense around the control column, waiting to feel if MCAS tries to knock him out of the sky. On January 5th, 2024, an Alaska Airlines door plug tore away mid-flight, leaving a gaping hole in the side of a plane that carried 171 passengers. This heart-stopping incident was just the latest in a string of crises surrounding the

aviation manufacturing giant, Boeing. In the past decade, Boeing has been involved in a series of damning scandals and deadly crashes that have chipped away at its once sterling reputation. At the center of it all, the 737 MAX, the latest season of Business Wars, explores how Boeing, once the gold standard of aviation engineering, descended into a nightmare of safety concerns and public mistrust. The decisions, denials, and devastating consequences bringing the Titan to its knees. And what, if anything, can save the company's reputation? Now, follow Business Wars on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, follow Business Wars on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge Business Wars, The Unraveling of Boeing, early and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus. Through January and February of 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 continues to fly. And thousands of pilots like Dennis Taser take off and land without incident. But Boeing still hasn't delivered the software it promised would fix the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS. In a meeting with Boeing executives, FAA Safety Chief Ali Barami gives the company 10 months to complete the software fix. Barami also meets with congressional leaders on transportation and aviation, assuring them that the Lion Air accident was a one-off caused by poor pilot performance. He implies that there's no need for further scrutiny of the plane,

and certainly no need to ground it. And as the months tick by, the Lion Air crash begins to fade from public memory. Boeing surpasses $100 billion in revenue, its stock price rebounds, and around the globe, thousands of passengers board a 737 MAX 8 with faulty MCAS software still installed. One such passenger is 24-year-old Samya Stumo, who recently earned a master's degree in public health.

Stumo was raised in the small town of Sheffield, Massachusetts, but she's long dreamed of helping people outside the United States. So when she lands her dream job at a nonprofit specializing in global health care access, Stumo is eager to put her education to work in the wider world. to work in the wider world. In March 2019, five months after the Lion Air crash, she packs her bags and leaves for her first international assignment in Nairobi, Kenya.

The first leg of Stumo's trip takes her to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she has to change planes. And when she arrives there on the morning of March 10th, she pulls out her phone and uses WhatsApp to text her parents

back home in Massachusetts. She lets them know that she's landed in Addis Ababa and that it'll just be another two-hour flight before she arrives in Kenya and gets to work. Back in Massachusetts, where it's already past midnight, her parents wish her safe travels and then head to bed. But that night, Stumo's mother, Nadia Milleran, struggles to stay asleep. She tosses and turns until around two in the morning and then gives up. She throws on a bathrobe, grabs her phone, and heads into the kitchen to make some tea. She fills the kettle and flips on the radio, tuned to the local NPR station.

At this hour in the morning, it's broadcasting the BBC World Service. Milleron lets the dry monotone of the reporter wash over her as she gets out a mug and sifts through the boxes of tea on the shelf. But then the reporter's voice suddenly takes on an urgency, saying they have breaking news. Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, traveling from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, has crashed shortly after takeoff. Milleran freezes. That's the same route her daughter Samia's flying. She takes out her phone, her hands shaking

as she opens her email app and searches for the flight information Samia sent. The words on the phone screen seem to swim in front of her eyes, but they're right there in black and white. Samia's booked on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. Right then, Milleran's knees buckle. She stumbles her way into a chair at the kitchen

table and thinks, not again. Almost 20 years ago, Milleran's youngest son died of cancer at age two. She can't lose another child. So she sits, shaking in her chair, alone in the kitchen in the middle of the night, willing all of this to be just a bad dream. of the night, willing all of this to be just a bad dream. All 157 people on board Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 died in the crash, making it the deadliest plane crash in Ethiopian history. The plane is estimated to have hit the ground going over 500 miles per hour. The impact left a crater 32 feet deep. Unlike Lion Air, Ethiopian Airlines has a strong

safety record. It's considered one of the safest airlines in Africa. And also unlike Lion Air, which had almost entirely Indonesian passengers on board, the Ethiopian flight had people from 35 countries, including more than 20 United Nations workers and youth ambassadors. As a result, the international scrutiny on the crash is intense. Reporters are quick to point out that there are several disconcerting similarities between the Ethiopian crash and the Lion Air one. Both occurred just minutes after takeoff, and both occurred during clear weather. Most importantly, though, both involved the 737 MAX 8.

Most importantly, though, both involve the 737 MAX 8. Boeing immediately puts out a statement stressing that the 737 MAX is a safe aircraft and says pilots have access to existing procedures in the event of a faulty angle of attack sensor or runaway stabilizer. It also reiterates that they're working on an update to the MCAS software, but claims that MCAS does not control the plane during normal flight, implying that this system could not have been the root cause for either crash. But regulators around the globe are skeptical. In 2017, the safest year on record, there were 10 total airline crashes with fatalities, and none of them involved passenger jets. But now, in the space of just five months, there have been two

crashes of the exact same model of commercial passenger plane under similar circumstances. It seems unlikely to be a coincidence. So on Monday, March 11th, the day after the Ethiopian crash, China grounds all 737 MAX 8s. The next day, the European Union, Australia, Canada, and India ground the planes as well. But in the United States, the FAA continues to allow the plane to fly. Safety Chief Ali Barami insists that there's not enough data to conclude with any certainty that some design flaw was responsible for both MAX 8 crashes. But on the morning of March 13th, Barami receives an urgent phone call from Boeing.

On the morning of March 13th, Barami receives an urgent phone call from Boeing. Barami takes the call in an FAA conference room with his staff. An executive from Boeing is the first to speak. Ali, I'm here with a team of our engineers, and they've been analyzing the satellite transponder data sent over from Flight 302. And what have you found? Well, we've been focusing on comparing the data from the Ethiopian flight to that of Lion Air Flight 610. We've been looking at how similar the flight patterns are.

I'm sending you a chart now that superimposes the rates of climb and descent for both flights. An FAA staffer downloads the chart and projects it onto a video screen in the conference room. When the image loads, Barami's mouth drops open. All right, I'm looking at the chart now. When the image loads, Varami's mouth drops open. All right, I'm looking at the chart now. They're almost exactly the same. Yeah, you know, you can see how both planes pitch down and then back up repeatedly. And steeply. Chart looks like a

mountain range. Yeah. And what's the explanation? Faulty MCAS? Well, we can't say that definitively yet. Black box data is still being analyzed, but there is evidence from the crash site that indicates the wing flaps were in the up position. And that would allow MCAS to activate? Yeah, yeah, that's right. Barami is silent for a moment. Well, I have to talk to my boss. This, uh, this changes everything. Barami ends the call and rushes out of the conference room.

He needs to find FAA Director Daniel Elwell and ask him to order the immediate grounding of all 737 MAX 8s. A few hours after Ali Barami's phone call with Boeing, President Donald Trump announces that the United States has joined other countries around the world in grounding the MAX 8. the United States has joined other countries around the world in grounding the MAX 8. The 72 MAX 8s currently in operation within the United States are ordered to either stay on the ground or cease operation upon landing, and the planes will stay grounded at least until the investigation into the Ethiopian Airlines crash concludes. But despite the FAA ruling, Boeing executives stick to their talking points. They assure the public that safety is

still the company's top priority and remind their customers that they are working on a fix to the MCAS software. But industry analysts predict that the grounding will last about three months and cost Boeing roughly $1 billion. Still, for a company the size of Boeing, it's a setback, not a catastrophe. But then, 12 days after the MAX is grounded, the black box data from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 is released. And in Chicago, American Airlines pilot Dennis Taser eagerly studies it. He sits down at his computer and opens up the file with the graphs from the flight data recorder. On the charts, it's clear to see when MCAS turns on. The software fires automatically for 10-second intervals, driving the plane down.

Then it switches off for 5 seconds and the plane rises, then back down for 10. Over and over, this pattern repeats. On for 10 seconds, off for 5. The plane dives down and then scrambles up, only to dive back down again. You can imagine the terrified pilots fighting the plane, trying to keep it in the air. But he wonders if they recognized what was happening. They had all received the same safety directive he had, one that instructed them how to respond to a faulty MCAS activation.

He knows that the captain was an experienced aviator with 8,000 hours of flight time, but the first officer was younger. He hadn't even logged 1,000 hours in the area. It's possible they missed that this was an MCAS error. Sotager opens the other document, the transcript of the cockpit voice recorder. He skims through the conversation between the two pilots and sees the moment the pilot's stick controller started shaking and alarms in the cockpit began blaring. He finds the point when the captain orders the wing flaps up and the moment

when MCAS first kicks in. He keeps reading and then sees what he's looking for. The first officer calls for the stab trim switches to be cut. He calls for it twice and the captain confirms the order. The first officer turns off the electric trim system. They followed the safety checklist, but it wasn't enough. Tears well in Taser's eyes, and he mutters to himself that the kid got it right. The kid got it right. The young first officer had done exactly what Boeing had said to do, but it didn't make a difference.

The problem was not pilot error. The problem is MCAS. The problem is Boeing. And at this point, Taser is no longer interested in hearing about Boeing's plans to fix MCAS or how to override the system

in the interim. The families of the victims and every pilot needs to know how in the world a plane with such a catastrophic flaw was ever put into service. From Wondery, this is Episode 1 of Boeing for American Scandal. In our next episode, investigators dig into Boeing's past to see how MCAS was put on

the 737 MAX 8 with no one knowing. If you're enjoying American Scandal, you can unlock exclusive seasons on Wondery Plus. Binge new seasons first and listen completely ad-free when you join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a survey at wondery.com slash survey. If you'd like to learn more about this story, we recommend the book Flying Blind by Peter Robinson and the documentary Downfall, The Case Against Boeing, directed by Rory Kennedy. This episode contains reenactments and dramatized details. And while in most cases we can't know exactly what was said, all our dramatizations are based on historical research. American Scandal

is hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsey Graham, for Airship. Audio editing by Christian Paraka. Sound design by Gabriel Gould. Music by Lindsey Graham. This episode is written by Austin Rackless. Edited by Emma Cortland. Fact-checking by Alyssa Jung-Perry. Produced by John Reed. Managing producer, Olivia Fonte. Senior Producer is Andy Herman. Development by Stephanie Jens. Executive Producers are Jenny Lauer Beckman, Marshall Louis, and Erin O'Flaherty for Wondery.