New Delhi, March 14Though Indian carriers operating the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft have not yet faced issues such as those that caused the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft on Sunday, a cross section of pilots BusinessLine spoke to did point to some red flags.
The first is the lack of a MAX simulator in India to offer training on this new version of the aircraft, particularly during emergencies. The second is the steady decline in the number of hours flown required of pilots to operate the aircraft.
Inadequate training
“There is a one-day ground class. It (MAX) is an easy enough aircraft to fly, but if there is an incident — given that the experience of pilots is coming down and that they are not encouraged to fly manually — then it could become an issue,” said a pilot with over 10 years of experience in flying Boeing aircraft including the MAX.
