Boeing submitted an early version of a software fix for the 737 Max aircraft to the US aviation regulator weeks before an Ethiopian Airlines crash that has intensified scrutiny of how planes are certified to be safe by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Daniel Elwell, acting FAA administrator, said in prepared testimony for a Senate panel hearing on Wednesday that, on January 21, Boeing had presented a proposed fix for the MCAS (manoeuvring characteristics augmentation system) flight control system. It is this which is believed to have gone awry last October in a Lion Air crash that killed 189 people.
An FAA spokesperson said that the January 21 version of the fix for the MCAS “was an early version of the software, which has undergone significant modifications since”.