re: Boeing, not Spirit, mis-installed piece that blew off Alaska MAX 9 jet, industry source sa

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he first issue they had with the MAX crashes was a software issue and they didn't write the software themselves, they outsourced it to and Indian company.

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That wasn't the root cause though. The root cause is Boeing rushed the production as an upgraded version of the 737 instead of developing a new aircraft. A new aircraft would have meant a 9-year FAA certification process, where the redesign meant a 3 to 5-year certification process. It was rushed so American Airlines wouldn't switch to the Airbus.

The redesign had wider and heavier engines, which meant the fuselage would be longer and the wings would be wider. To stay in the "redesign" scope of FAA, they couldn't change the height of the aircraft, so the engines were mounted more forward on the wings. This necessitated the MCAS system that led to failures. Oh, and Boeing left the MCAS info out of the flight manual so the FAA wouldn't catch on to how different the aircraft was. If the FAA would have known, then there is a highly likely chance the aircraft would have had to go through the full FAA certification process. This was ALL on Boeing, not anyone else.