737 MAX returning to passenger service in Sacramento. Wary flyers can avoid it, though

The 737 MAX aircraft is returning to passenger service in the United States, including in Sacramento in the coming days, nearly two years after being grounded in the wake of back-to-back fatal crashes blamed on botched software.

United Airlines will be the first to fly the jet in the West, beginning on Feb. 11, identifying Sacramento as one of the airports to be used by the MAX jets, which have been retrofitted and were re-certified for commercial flights in November by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The aircraft variant — the fourth generation of the narrow-bodied plane used extensively abroad for fuel efficiency — was grounded for 20 months after two flights ended in the deaths of 346 people: a Lion Air flight crashed in Jakarta, Indonesia, in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed after take-off in Addis Ababa in March 2019. The disasters prompted recriminations against Boeing for poor software design and the FAA for lax oversight.

Investigations determined faulty flight control software installed by Boeing caused each planes’ nose to pitch downward unexpectedly shortly after take-off in both cases. Pilots could not wrestle the planes back to level flight

FAA officials recently gave the go-ahead for the planes to fly again, saying that sensor-system retrofits and other changes have eliminated the issues that caused the crashes.

Customers can choose to avoid MAX flights

United officials said they have not yet listed all airports the 737 MAX will serve, but said in an email to The Sacramento Bee, “we will be fully transparent with our customers and will communicate in advance when they are booked to fly on a MAX aircraft.”

A review of initial United flight schedules, however, show a 737 MAX flight scheduled the evening of Feb. 11 from Denver to Sacramento, with a return flight to Denver on that jet the next morning.

Southwest, which handles about half of flights out of Sacramento and is the leading carrier in California, will resume flights with the 737 MAX aircraft on March 11. Southwest previously used the plane frequently for Sacramento and California flights, but said this week it has not formalized its flight assignments for March.

Alaska Airlines said it also plans to fly an updated version of the MAX starting March 1 on the West Coast between Seattle, San Diego and Los Angeles. Alaska officials said they do not have immediate plans to fly the jet out of Sacramento. “This plane is a significant part of our future. We believe in it,” Alaska Airlines President Ben Minicucci said in a press statement.

American Airlines previously reintroduced the 737 MAX at the end of December on the East Coast and reports it has flown 600 flights with the plane as of this week. American officials say they aren’t currently scheduling 737 MAX flights at Sacramento, but will start up next week at Phoenix and next month at San Diego.

United and Southwest both have indicated that wary travelers can switch flights without extra cost if they do not want to fly on a 737 MAX.

“We have pledged to operate at least half of our flights on routes the MAX serves with non-MAX aircraft,” United wrote. “This will ensure that those who do not want to fly on a MAX and want to fly with United have the option to do so.

“If a customer does not wish to fly on a MAX aircraft, we will rebook them at no charge or refund the ticket.”

How to check if your flight’s plane type

Southwest, which has invested heavily in the 737 Max in recent years, reported it had 41 of the aircraft ready for service as of the end of 2020, and plans to add 28 more in 2021. That represents a small slice of Southwest’s fleet of 718 aircraft. But Southwest plans to increase reliance on the MAX aircraft in the coming years.

The airline has an online guide on how to know the type of aircraft that is planned to be used for a given route. A potential ticket purchaser can click on the flight number, which will call up a information box that lists the aircraft type.

In a recent financial filing, Southwest Airlines chief executive Gary C. Kelly said he personally flew on one of the jets and said he has “supreme confidence” that the federally mandated retrofits have made the airliner safe for commercial flights.

“We have been working to meet the FAA’s requirements by modifying certain operating procedures, implementing enhanced pilot training requirements, installing FAA-approved flight control software updates, and completing other required maintenance tasks specific to the MAX aircraft,” Kelly wrote. “I recently had the opportunity to fly on one of our MAX operational readiness flights, which only reaffirmed my supreme confidence in Southwest’s ability to operate the MAX safely.”

United Airlines also has published information about its use of the aircraft on its website. The airline said in recent financial documents it expects to increase usage of the 737 MAX over the next two years.

Airline safety officials in the U.S. and Europe say they believe the planes are now safe, but they will be watching early flight data. The jet’s return has prompted some controversy nonetheless.

Some family members of those killed on the two flights have said the re-certification of the jets has come too quickly. A group called Flyers Rights has challenged the FAA’s approval for flight resumptions, and says it wants Boeing to disclose more test data. Otherwise, spokesman Kendall Creighton said, “it’s impossible for us and other experts to provide to the public, other stakeholders and interested parties any objective assessment of the FAA’s life-or-death decision in ungrounding the Boeing 737 MAX.”

And a September 2020 report from the House of Representatives’ Transportation and Infrastructure pointed out that the FAA had certified the 737 MAX as safe as well prior to the two crashes.

“The fact that a compliant airplane suffered from two deadly crashes in less than five months is clear evidence that the current regulatory system is fundamentally flawed and needs to be repaired,” committee staff wrote on behalf of the committee chair.

The committee called for a more robust FAA oversight structure and improved certification process.

This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 5:00 AM.