According to a Bloomberg.com report, “Boeing is preparing to send a safety warning to operators of its new 737 Max jets in response to the investigation of last week’s fatal crash off the coast of Indonesia that left 189 dead, said a person familiar with the matter.”
That person reportedly said Boeing will issue a bulletin to alert airlines that incorrect readings from a flight-monitoring system can cause the planes to abruptly dive. Boeing has an existing procedure that allows pilots to continue flying in the event that angle of attack readings become erroneous and the alert will warn pilots to follow that procedure to handle the problem.
Apparently when pilots are manually flying, “the Max jets will automatically try to push down the nose if they detect that an aerodynamic stall is possible,” the Bloomberg report says.
The glitch could be tied into angle of attack indications. The Lion Air flight reported erroneous airspeed indications. It is not clear if the airspeed issue had a connection with the angle-of-attack issue.
Lion Air reportedly has not received any bulletins from Boeing as of yet. The bulletin may be released as early as Wednesday morning Jakarta time.