BEIJING — The plane that crashed in southern China on Monday was a Boeing 737-800, a mainstay of aviation fleets around the world with a strong safety record.
The model is part of Boeing’s so-called Next Generation line of narrow-body jets with a maximum range of more than 3,000 miles, but often used on shorter routes.
The 737-800 is an older model. Some airlines switched to the 737-Max, a newer narrow-body aircraft. The 737-Max was temporarily grounded worldwide after two of them crashed nearly four years ago.
The 737-Max was criticized after one of them crashed in Indonesia at the end of 2018 and a second in Ethiopia. The Max was grounded worldwide after the second crash, in March 2019. Boeing eventually made a series of changes to the aircraft before re-approving it for commercial service in most countries 20 months later.
However, China waited longer than most countries to let the 737-Max fly again. China’s aviation regulators only gave approval in early December and demanded that Chinese airlines prove that they had implemented all of Boeing’s changes before they could actually fly back on commercial routes.
Chinese airlines have made these changes and are still testing the planes, so the 737-Max is not yet back in service in mainland China, said David Yu, a finance professor specializing in aviation at the Shanghai campus of the United Nations. New York University.
Boeing agreed in January last year to pay more than $2.5 billion in a fine to the Justice Department to resolve a criminal charge the company had conspired to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates Boeing. and evaluates its aircraft.
The criminal charges against the company involved the actions of two employees who failed to share information with the FAA about changes to computer software on the 737-Max. That software was later involved in both crashes.