At least in the case of the Lion Air crash, the current theory is that the angle of attack sensor was giving an erroneous signal and the plane was not in fact at risk of stalling, but MCAS was pushing the nose down anyway due to the bad sensor reading.

Those are the Oasis conversion planes that are out of service, nothing to do with the current issue.

And my understanding is more in line with Lux Flyer. :p That the plane would handle quite differently under certain flight conditions than a 737NG (primarily related to the size/placement/shape of the MAX engines, whose housings apparently generate incremental lift at high angles of attack, which would push the nose up more and eventually result in a stall), and in order to not require pilots to get new certifcation on this new type, they came up with the system to compensate and make the aircraft behave more similarly to a NG.

UK has now joined the list of those grounding the 737 MAX / removing flyover rights

AA has around 24 MAX aircraft in the fleet from memory (but a larger number on order) - could they effectively remove this number of aircraft in one go from the current schedule with minimal disruption?

That depends on what you mean by minimal. Every (sanely managed) carrier has spares. They could park 24 Maxs tomorrow and cover those routes with spares from among the mainline fleet of ~940 non-MAX aircraft. They could cut scheduled flights (say, effective 4/1) to build back the available spares to a normal level. AA had to ground 80 MD-80s immediately back in 2008 to inspect wiring bundles. Post-merger the fleet's a lot bigger today.

Do we know what routes have the MAX on them for AA as of today or, alternatively, how the aircraft is displayed when looking at flights on aa.com? Is it 737 800 or 737 MAX or something else on aa.com? I've got a flight and am curious more than nervous.

With the UK grounding the MAX and Senator Romney calling for the FAA to do the same, it seems likely that the MAX will be grounded by the weekend. Could make a fix happen quicker as Boeing and the airlines will be incentived to get the issue addressed ASAP.

Lots up there:

https://flightaware.com/live/aircrafttype/B38M

(although I don't think it's accurate in the some cases of places where they've been grounded already?)

Just what we need - a quick and dirty patch-on-a-patch. Surely that will resolve the problem...

What if the problem is cocky pilots who don't read their training manuals or watch the evening news? By now, pretty much the whole world knows how to turn off the MACS system as a result of all the Lion Air coverage.

...ish. It would be a lot easier if those 14 738 Oasis conversions didn't have to get pulled last week. The big issue is Spring Break is coming up at the end of March through Easter (April 21).

For a longer-term shutdown, it wouldn't be too much of an issue, but no matter what AA expects the FAA to do, I guarantee every AA aircraft due to be retired this year or was recently retired is being looked at to determine the feasibility of keeping it longer (extending leases where possible, potentially going through a major maintenance check, etc.). If this grounding lasts more than a couple months, it wouldn't surprise me to see the remaining M80s and LUS 752s stay into 2020, as AA expects to have an additional 16 MAX aircraft in their fleet by year end.

So from what I understand from AA's naming conventions is the 738 is the 737-800 correct? I have 3 flights coming up in June that have that aircraft. I hope its that aircraft, way too nervous to fly on a MAX right now.

Speaking as someone with zero knowledge of aviation technology, if the MACS system is indeed a known problem, why rely on the pilots to turn it off? Why can't Boeing work with the airlines to actually fix it or disable it?

Correct.

On your flight details:
738 = 737-800 (NON MAX)
7M8 = 737 MAX 8

You should be good.

Speaking as someone with zero knowledge myself, I'd say that it's because the MACS system is both useful and necessary to safely operate the aircraft. There are lots of systems in any piece of technology that can be dangerous if used improperly. For example: in the Olden Days, you used to have to pump the brakes in an emergency situation to keep them from locking up. ABS became standard 30-40 years ago, so nobody pumps their brakes now because doing so actually makes things worse. But for the first 20 years after ABS, old people would still pump based on experience.

Does that apply to the Ethiopian Air crash too? There have been news stories and even photographs of the switch that needs to be thrown on every news outlet for the last 4 months. How could a pilot whose business is to fly the 737 MAX in the weeks and months since the Lion Air crash have ignored those stories?

On a more practical non-technical data point, if you are polite enough and insistent enough with the AA call center, they will waive the change fee for any MAX flights (may require escalation).

This is happening on third world airlines. The common thread is incompetent pilots.

This ailing assertion is such a poor way to rationalize a complex issue.

The captain of the ET 737 had as many flight hours as your average Emirates A380 pilot, if not more. And ET's modern safety record is at the same level of almost all major carriers internationally.

There is grumbling about the co-pilot having 200 hours....Not sure if that was total time, 737Max time, time as a commercial pilot, etc. But whatever...

I called on my flight which was MIA-LAS on the only 737-MAX flight of the day for that route. What is strange is that the flight has many open seats, yet American is not selling any seats for that flight currently. I called and got my flight changed to one of the 757 flights of the day (both non stops) I am lifetime Plat and never changed my flight before like this. A former FAA safety inspector said today he would not fly that plane until we know more. I assume they would change the flight for anyone however. This is a very unusual issue and couldd really become a major issue for AA and others if they cant fly these planes. I am sure tons of customers are calling right now.

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This situation could be an argument I guess for airlines keeping the fleet well diversified, and not doing large orders very early on in a new aircraft model...

Germany and France have joined the UK and others in banning the 7M8 from its airspace.

https://www.euronews.com/2019/03/12/...om-uk-airspace

UK, Germany and France have now all grounded / closed airspace to the MAX.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...312-story.html

(Poland, Netherlands, and many others also grounding / closing to the MAX)

The swells are getting bigger. Just a matter of time now for AA/UA/SW/AC, IMO.

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Adding Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Italy, and Norway to the flight ban over their air space.

Were scheduled?

My bad, I was looking in the wrong direction. I was checking 293 from MIA-DCA which was showing the 7M8 but then checked DCA-MIA by accident and saw the ~3pm flight was now a 321. Sorry for the confusion. Will edit my original post.

Appreciate the self-correction, not always a popular option 'round here :)

Heh! Definitely true, but I imagine that any 737 MAX pilot would have made himself aware of the symptoms and the cure by now. Haven't there been several Boeing and FAA bulletins sent out to pilots about this?
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