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This is really troubling. I have a flight in a month from NY to Cali on Southwest and they use that same plane (according to a quick Googling at least). Am I

by nickjj 8y ago

This is really troubling. I have a flight in a month from NY to Cali on Southwest and they use that same plane (according to a quick Googling at least). Am I crazy to think about cancelling the flight or trying to use a different airline with a different plane? I'm going to wait to see what the FAA has to say before making a final decision. I don't keep up with the airline industry, but hopefully they aren't too corrupt (aka. profit driven). Edit: I just discovered https://www.seatguru.com/ https://www.seatguru.com/. It's a site where you can pop in your airline, flight date and flight number (no sign up required) and it reports back which plane is being used in the flight. In my case it is the 737-700 and 737-800 (I have 1 connection) which I think are different planes than the MAX? In any case, if you're flying in the near future I recommend checking that site out. I just wonder how accurate that site is (it seems legit from an outsider's POV).

weaksauce 8y ago
Well I don’t care to speculate but the first officer had only 200 hours of flight logged and the captain had over 8000. A lot of captains will let the less experienced first officer fly take off and landing if it’s favorable conditions and easy terrain to give them more experience. I don’t know who was flying the plane but it certainly could have been the fo because it was vfr conditions and seemingly favorable terrain. As to your flight you should probably be fine as there is a us rule that the fo needs to have 1500 hours to be qualified. That coupled with the fact that the pilots are now keenly aware of the failure mode of the 37 max means you are probably fine.
- rb666 8y ago
  I would certainly cancel. Boeing still has not applied a software update, and pilots were already aware of the 737's failure mode, the 2018 crash! The FAA is being protective of US industry.
  - jimktrains2 8y ago
    Not all 737 models are affected. the -700 and -800 have excellent safety records; among the best of any airframe. These issues both happened with MAX (MAX 8 iirc) airframes. SouthWest does fly 35 MAX8 airframes it appears. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_fleet#Current_fleet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_fleet#Curre...
- AceyMan 8y ago
  > A lot of captains will let the less experienced first officer fly take off and landing if it’s favorable conditions and easy terrain to give them more experience. For US carriers, alternating legs between PF (pilot flying) and PM (pilot monitoring) is standard practice as dictated by the carrier's own Flight Operations division (aka, "The Flying Department"). In the event of an emergency it'd be expected (if not mandatory) that the PIC (pilot in charge, e.g. captain) to immediately become the PF. The standard call-out for the role swap is "MY CONTROLS" or "MY AIRCRAFT" Case in point: US1549, the Hudson ditching, was being flown by the F/O. After the bird strike and loss of engines, Capt Sully called "My aircraft"; the F/O replied "Your aircraft", effecting the swap of roles. (me: US aircraft dispatcher in a previous life xD )
newman314 8y ago
I don't think you are crazy. At the end of the day, you only have one life, it's not like you get to hit reset while the airlines say "my bad". TBH, it's a really bad look when US carriers are insisting that "it's fine, it's all fine" while other carriers are grounding out of an abundance of caution.
rootusrootus 8y ago
If you know you are flying on an 737 NG (700 and 800 are both NG) and not a MAX model, then I think you may be overreacting. The 737 NG has just about the best safety record of any plane ever. If I were flying on a MAX soon, I'd think about it, for sure, that's human nature. But try to remember that it has had a couple hundred thousand uneventful flights in addition to the two crashes.
- nickjj 8y ago
  Yeah after finding out the exact model number I'm not going to cancel or switch airlines. I didn't know about the seatguru site when I first replied.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
AWildC182 8y ago
I wouldn't be too worried. Keep in mind that the pilots have much more risk exposure than you do and as such aren't going to sit back and watch. The US licenced pilots are very aware of the issue and know what to do in the event of a trim runaway. Even the solution itself is very simple. Yes, it's a risk but statistically it's very low and at this point, well mitigated.
rconti 8y ago
Your carrier tells you which type of plane you're on. As you've noticed, there are also other sources for this information. Most of Southwest's fleet are standard 737s. If you're not that familiar with the various models, it's probably not worth making a rash decision over. Regardless, this will be sorted out, one way or another, in a month. I did care enough to ensure my Southwest flight 2 days ago was not on a Max, though.

by nickjj 8y ago

weaksauce 8y ago

Well I don’t care to speculate but the first officer had only 200 hours of flight logged and the captain had over 8000. A lot of captains will let the less experienced first officer fly take off and landing if it’s favorable conditions and easy terrain to give them more experience. I don’t know who was flying the plane but it certainly could have been the fo because it was vfr conditions and seemingly favorable terrain. As to your flight you should probably be fine as there is a us rule that the fo needs to have 1500 hours to be qualified. That coupled with the fact that the pilots are now keenly aware of the failure mode of the 37 max means you are probably fine.

rb666 8y ago
I would certainly cancel. Boeing still has not applied a software update, and pilots were already aware of the 737's failure mode, the 2018 crash! The FAA is being protective of US industry.
- jimktrains2 8y ago
  Not all 737 models are affected. the -700 and -800 have excellent safety records; among the best of any airframe. These issues both happened with MAX (MAX 8 iirc) airframes. SouthWest does fly 35 MAX8 airframes it appears. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_fleet#Current_fleet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_fleet#Curre...
AceyMan 8y ago
> A lot of captains will let the less experienced first officer fly take off and landing if it’s favorable conditions and easy terrain to give them more experience. For US carriers, alternating legs between PF (pilot flying) and PM (pilot monitoring) is standard practice as dictated by the carrier's own Flight Operations division (aka, "The Flying Department"). In the event of an emergency it'd be expected (if not mandatory) that the PIC (pilot in charge, e.g. captain) to immediately become the PF. The standard call-out for the role swap is "MY CONTROLS" or "MY AIRCRAFT" Case in point: US1549, the Hudson ditching, was being flown by the F/O. After the bird strike and loss of engines, Capt Sully called "My aircraft"; the F/O replied "Your aircraft", effecting the swap of roles. (me: US aircraft dispatcher in a previous life xD )

newman314 8y ago

I don't think you are crazy. At the end of the day, you only have one life, it's not like you get to hit reset while the airlines say "my bad". TBH, it's a really bad look when US carriers are insisting that "it's fine, it's all fine" while other carriers are grounding out of an abundance of caution.

rootusrootus 8y ago

If you know you are flying on an 737 NG (700 and 800 are both NG) and not a MAX model, then I think you may be overreacting. The 737 NG has just about the best safety record of any plane ever. If I were flying on a MAX soon, I'd think about it, for sure, that's human nature. But try to remember that it has had a couple hundred thousand uneventful flights in addition to the two crashes.

nickjj 8y ago
Yeah after finding out the exact model number I'm not going to cancel or switch airlines. I didn't know about the seatguru site when I first replied.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

AWildC182 8y ago

I wouldn't be too worried. Keep in mind that the pilots have much more risk exposure than you do and as such aren't going to sit back and watch. The US licenced pilots are very aware of the issue and know what to do in the event of a trim runaway. Even the solution itself is very simple. Yes, it's a risk but statistically it's very low and at this point, well mitigated.

rconti 8y ago

Your carrier tells you which type of plane you're on. As you've noticed, there are also other sources for this information. Most of Southwest's fleet are standard 737s. If you're not that familiar with the various models, it's probably not worth making a rash decision over. Regardless, this will be sorted out, one way or another, in a month. I did care enough to ensure my Southwest flight 2 days ago was not on a Max, though.