 For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. The crisis in the aviation industry continues as the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes enters its eighth month. The grounding was ordered by regulatory agencies worldwide after two plane crashes that occurred in a span of five months. The first crash happened in Indonesia last year and the second one in Ethiopia in March which collectively killed about 346 people on board. Both crashes were attributed to the failures in the safety system of the 737 MAX 8 model. However, apart from Boeing safety flaws, the US Federal Aviation Administration is also being held responsible for these crashes as it fails to properly review the new safety features of the MAX 8 model. Last week, a damning report was released by an international body of air safety regulators outlining the FAA's negligence and its oversight. This body which is called the Joint Authorities Technical Review or the JATR was commissioned by the FAA after two deadly crashes to look into the certification and the approval process undergone by this model in April. The findings of this body were made public last week on October 11. The report says that the FAA lacks the ability to effectively analyze the new automated system which was made a part of the design of the plane. This system is known as the MCAS or the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System. It is responsible for the aircraft nose-diving in both the crashes. The review body said in iCourt that the information and discussions about MCAS was so fragmented and would deliver to disconnected groups that it was difficult to recognize the impacts and the implications of the system. It further said that the MCAS was not evaluated as a complete and an integrated function in the certification documents that were submitted to the FAA. This points to the fact that the FAA relies on the manufacturer to perform certain certifications on the basis of which approvals are given, instead of performing a more stringent check in itself. It has been reported that the FAA has accepted self-certification by Boeing for as far as 80% of the aircraft features. The JATR report also said that there was an inadequate number of FAA specialists who were involved in the process and that some of them were under undue pressure being Boeing employees themselves while doing the FAA work which resulted in the conflict of interest. Overall, the review body recommended that FAA needs to significantly reform its certification process to ensure adequate oversight. Now let's look at Boeing's role in these mishaps. About the Indonesian Lion Air crash and the Ethiopian Airlines crash occurred during the takeoff. The flight path shows that instead of rising, the plane hovered and then crashed. This is because the plane was not being able to rise at its normal rate of climb. The MCAS which is an anti-stall feature was responsible. Now what does this feature do? Two sensors on the nose of the plane detect the angle at which the plane is climbing. In case the angle is too steep, these sensors send a signal bank back to the MCAS indicating this and the MCAS pushes the nose of the plane down. Now in both these crashes, the sensors gave incorrect or contradictory signals. So while the pilot was attempting to take off, the MCAS pushed the plane down forcing the pilot to pull it up higher and the MCAS to push it down again. This tug of war continued until the aircraft entered a steep dive from which the pilot could not recover. Apart from the problem of the faulty sensors, there was also no easy way of turning off the system. The MCAS is not disabled as a part of being autopilot. It continues to function even in the manual mode. It needs to be turned off separately. However, an even bigger problem is that the pilots were not really made aware of this. The JATR noted that Boeing had removed the mention of MCAS from the draft of the pilot's manual. This meant that adequate training had also not been performed for the pilots for these crucial features. And had they consulted with their manuals during such crisis, they wouldn't have found much of help. The MCAS software itself was introduced to compensate for the unstable design of the 737 MAX 8. The LEAP engine which has been installed in this model is larger than once which were used in the earlier 737 models. This engine offers 15% improvement in fuel efficiency but due to its larger size, it would have required the redesigning of the plane structure to make it aerodynamically stable. What Boeing seems to have done instead is to retrofit this engine into its earlier designs and then add MCAS to make up for whatever instability was introduced. This hurry in rolling out a new model with a more efficient engine is what is being seen as due to the competition Boeing was facing from the Airbus A320neo family which is making use of the same engines. The FAA also allowed the MAX aircraft to undergo a less stringent process of certification as it was a part of the 737 family. This was criticized by the JATR whose report said that the FAA's certification process for a new plane based on an old design lacks an adequate assessment of how proposed design changes to integrate with the existing systems. As the Boeing 737 MAX 8 continues to be grounded, airlines all over the world are accruing losses and capacity constraints are also rising. More than 370 MAX jets remain grounded worldwide while hundreds more are expected to be delivered. At the same day as the JATR report was released, Boeing's board of directors relieved the company's CEO Dennis Muhlenberg from his position as a chairman so that he can concentrate on getting the MAX planes back in the air. Nevertheless, the earliest expectations for the 737 MAX to take flight again is from January next year. This too, only in the US. Most other regulatory agencies have made it clear that they will be conducting their own certification processes instead of trusting the FAA.