Boeing dismissed fears of a second 737 Max crash when confronted by pilots after the plane's first disaster, leaked audio reportedly reveals

REUTERS/Abhirup Roy

The cockpit of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in June 2018.

• Boeing told played down concerns of a second 737 Max crash to pilots after the first fatal crash, according to audio from a union meeting reported by both CBS News and The New York Times.
• American Airlines' pilots confronted Boeing and said that they wanted more information about the plane's software, and argued that Boeing should immediately make fixes to the plane.
• Boeing Vice President Mike Sinnett said that it was not clear that the plane caused the crash and that "we try not to overload the crews with information that's unnecessary."
• One pilot was critical of the lack of information about the software in the training manual, and said: "I would think that there would be a priority of putting explanations of things that could kill you."
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Boeing played down concerns about a second crash involving its 737 Max plane when pilots confronted it after the first fatal crash, and said that giving them additional information about the aircraft's software was "unnecessary," according to audio obtained by CBS News and The New York Times.

American Airlines' pilots union challenged Boeing after a Lion Air Boeing 737 Max crashed in October 2018, killing all 189 people on board. Pilots said that they wanted more information about the plane they were flying and said that Boeing needed to take more steps to ensure its safety, according to the audio.

Boeing Vice President Mike Sinnett responded saying that it was not clear that the plane was the cause of the crash, and said that Boeing did not want to "overload the crews with information that's unnecessary," CBS News reported.

Read more: American Airlines CEO reveals when he would feel safe flying on the Boeing 737 Max again

The Lion Air crash was the first deadly crash involving the plane, and was followed by an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max crashing and killing all 157 people on board in March 2019.

Stephen Brashear/Getty Images

Boeing Vice President of Product Strategy, Mike Sinnett, speaks to media in March 2019.

The 737 Max was then grounded around the world and the preliminary reports into the crashes, released after the American Airlines meeting, said that the plane's MCAS anti-stall software misfired in both crashes.

Pilots in the meeting demanded more information about the software system, and said that they had not been aware that it was on the plane and that it was not included in their training manuals, The New York Times reported.

According to the New York Times, Michael Michaelis, an American Airlines pilot and the head of safety in the union, said: "These guys didn't even know the damn system was on the airplane, nor did anybody else."

Todd Wissing, also an American Airlines pilot, reportedly said that the system should have been explained in the training manual: "I would think that there would be a priority of putting explanations of things that could kill you."

Read more: The FAA is so concerned about the future of Boeing's 737 Max that it is bringing in NASA and the Air Force to help ensure it is safe to fly again

Another pilot said "We flat out deserve to know what is on our airplanes," according to CBS News.

Xinhua/ via Getty Images

The crash site of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max plane in March 2018.

Sinnett said that Boeing felt pilots did not need to know more about the system, given how unlikely it was to misfire.

"I don't know that understanding this system would've changed the outcome on this. In a million miles, you're going to maybe fly this airplane, maybe once you're going to see this, ever. So we try not to overload the crews with information that's unnecessary so they actually know the information we believe is important," he said, according to the recording obtained by CBS.

But he also said that he did not "disagree" that pilots deserved to know what was on the plane.

CBS News reported that Sinnett did not appear to know that he was being recorded.

In April, after the second crash, Boeing CEO Denis Muilenburg defended not telling pilots about the system, saying that it was "embedded" into the way pilots handle the plane, and so "when you train on the airplane, you are being trained on MCAS."

"It's not a separate system to be trained on," he said.

Ed Wray/Getty Images

Debris from the crashed Lion Air Boeing 737 Max.

Boeing declined to comment to The New York Times specifically on the November meeting, but provided a statement saying: "We are focused on working with pilots, airlines and global regulators to certify the updates on the Max and provide additional training and education to safely return the planes to flight."

The company is currently working on a software fix that, when approved by the FAA and regulators around the world, will likely see the plane return to service.

But Michaelis urged Boeing to take action to fix the plane at the November meeting. He said that Boeing should get the Federal Aviation Administration to instruct Boeing and airlines to update the software, which would have likely resulted in the plane being grounded temporarily, The New York Times reported.

Read more: Boeing's CEO explains why the company didn't tell 737 Max pilots about the software system that contributed to 2 fatal crashes

Sinnett said Boeing "don't want to rush and do a crappy job of fixing the right things and we also don't want to fix the wrong things" and said that Boeing was examining the plane to see if there were any problems with its design.

AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

An unpainted Boeing 737 Max jet.

"For flight-critical software, I don't think you want us to rush, rush it faster," he said.

Sinnett also said that " the assumption is that the flight crews have been trained"

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