Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly argued this week that software bugs in Boeing’s 737 Max fleet were “easily” fixed by engineers. The software problems led to two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019, each of which claimed the lives of all passengers and crew on board.
According to a report by Fox Business, Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly is confident that Boeing’s 737 Max fleet is ready to return to the air. During an interview for Axios on HBO that will air this week, Kelly argued that passengers should feel comfortable on the aircraft, despite its troubled past.
Breitbart News reported last week that the FAA approved the 737 Max fleet to return for commercial flights. The fleet was grounded for 20 months while Boeing engineers and government officials worked to address the issues that led to the crashes.
“We believe, based on very sound facts and judgment, that it is a very safe airplane,” Kelly said during the interview. Kelly claimed that the software bugs were “easily” addressed during the fleet’s grounding period.
“We’ll need to communicate. We’ll need to explain. We’ll need to have credible experts, like pilots who are in a position to explain. Whether people are, in turn, reassured is a different question,” Kelly added. “Aviation is the safest way to travel and has been for decades. It is heavily, heavily regulated, and with very skilled people involved.”
Breitbart News reported in October that celebrated pilot Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger said that Boeing should have done more to increase safety mechanisms during the fleet’s grounding period.
“I’m not going to say, ‘We’re done, good enough, move on,’” Sullenberger said at the time. “People are going to fly on it and I will probably be one of them,” he added. “The updated MAX will probably be as safe as the (previous model) 737 NG when they are done with it. But it’s not as good as it should be.”
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this story.
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