Pilots reportedly received limited training for 737 MAX 8 planes due to Boeing's haste

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

last updated 17 March 2019

As investigations into what caused both the Ethiopian Airlines crash last Sunday in Ethiopia and the Lion Air crash in Indonesia last October continue, attention has turned to pilot training.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that U.S. pilots received little physical training before flying Boeing's 737 Max 8 airplane — the same model of airplane involved in both incidents that was grounded worldwide following the crash in Ethiopia — in large part because Boeing was determined to get the plane on the market quickly.

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Because this new jet was a derivative model, regulators did not require additional simulator training for pilots, many of whom learned about the plane on an iPad, rather than traditional physical versions of cockpits that mimic flight experience. "We would have liked to have had a simulator," Jon Weaks, the president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, said. "But it wasn't practical, because it wasn't built yet."

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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