The disclosures followed criticism from airlines and crash victims' relatives that Boeing hasn't been forthcoming about issues with the 737 Max, which has been grounded since a second crash in March, in Ethiopia. (Photo: Scott McIntyre/Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg) — Boeing Co. knew months before a deadly 737 Max crash that a cockpit alert wasn't working the way the company had told buyers of the single-aisle jetliner. But the planemaker didn't share its findings with airlines or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) until after a Lion Air plane went down off the coast of Indonesia in October, according to a Boeing statement as it provided additional details of an issue that first came to light last week.
Boeing's latest disclosure raises new questions about the 737 Max's development and testing — and the company's lack of transparency. The alert was supposed to flash when two angle-of-attack vanes sent conflicting data about the relation of the plane's nose to the oncoming air stream. Boeing had told airlines and pilots that the so-called AOA disagree warning was standard across the Max fleet, as on a previous generation of 737 jets.
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