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Comment by konschubert | Hacker News Reader

I’m really surprised to hear that these planes will be back in the air in December.

Has the root cause of the two crashes been identified and fixed?

"Will be" is a bit strong here, more like may be. The European counterpart to the FAA expects it take well into next year.

Even if they fix it I'm not going to use any 737.

Wise move. All Boeing aircraft designed, built or remanufactured in the past 30 years (since regulation has been very weak / absent) are at systematic risk of being deficient in potentially an unlimited number of areas.

Another example of a MAX-like issue is in 2010 Al Jazeera uncovered the plot to hide the facts about the substandard Ducommun critical structural parts that were used on 737 NG (-600 .. -900) and covered-up by Boeing management. The story barely made headlines even though several 737 NG fuselages have broken up on hard landings and runway overruns, killing several passengers, whereas previous fuselages have survived such stresses.

It is a shame that regulatory capture (through political corruption) has been allowed to fester and decay the output of Boeing.

Let's be real - it's terrible that the MAX is so much less safe than the current, very strict aviation safety standards - we shouldn't cut Boeing any slack for that. But should you really go out of your way to avoid flying on one on that basis? Per mile, it's still safer than driving - very roughly, 100 times safer, compared to the usual 1000 times safer.

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