So it’s well documented that the Boeing 737 is the best selling airplane model of all time. All of the largest commercial airlines in North America, you have to go all the way down to #7 to find a carrier that doesn’t use the aircraft.
Boeing has fixed the software issue that caused the problems. Yes, it’s a software problem. And somehow, the creepiest air crashes to me, personally, have been software related. The Boeing 737-MAX crashes. The inaugural Airbus A320 crash that was flying as a demonstration; the Captain said it was a software problem, though investigators blamed it on the Captain. Air France flight #447. Software problems somehow make me more uneasy about an aircraft than the actual aircraft build itself.
Herein lies the problem. The crashes themselves are horrific. And because they were software related and not hardware related, it seems as if the flight crew could override the software, they would have been fine. And while the existing and new airplanes out there are going to be updated, the problem goes away.
But so does the public.
What, if anything, can be done to help educate the public and bring back confidence? Is that even possible? Or is Boeing going to have to outlast the public’s criticism for the next decade?