On this special episode of Avtalk, we welcome the air current editor-in-chief John Ostrower

as we discuss the status of the Boeing 737 max and the compendium of reporting that's come out in the last few weeks.

We are taking a closer look at how the aircraft was developed,

what Boeing is doing to get it back in the air, and how the manufacturer is trying to

regain the trust of airlines and pilots around the world. Hello and welcome to a special episode of Avtoc. I am Ian Petchenik here with

Jason Rabinduets and we have a special guest here once again John Ostauer

from the Air Current. Hello John. Hey guys guys thanks for having me. So we have a a special episode today and we're here to talk only about the 737 max and provide an update on the situation we find ourselves in a few months now after the aircraft was grounded worldwide and it seems like a few months before the aircraft will be back in the air.

Today is Wednesday, the 15th of May, and today there was a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives for the Aviation Subcommittee, which featured members of the FAA as well as the NTSB,

and one of the pieces of news that came out of there was that the FAA expects Boeing to formally submit their MCAS update in a week or so, to quote the FAA director.

So I guess we'll take that as our jumping off point and John will kind of walk our way from where we were last time in March to the present and look a little ahead to I guess a few months from now when the aircraft is is now expected to be back in the

air. A lot has happened since then. Certainly you know we've we've had the airplane was officially granted globally on March 13th. So we're just passing the two month mark here. And what we've seen is a steady drumbeat of, I would say, increasing uncertainty about things.

Again, I think I said back in, back in March that we are absolutely closer to the beginning of this than the end of it and I'm still of that of that mind with everything that's gone on in terms of the regulatory side of it, the certification

development side of it, where the airlines, how the airlines are feeling about the airplane

and really, you know, the overall perception and sensibility of the flying public around the airplane.

And so I think there's still a tremendous amount still ahead of us where we don't know how that's going to play out and how this

airplane and precisely when this airplane is going to get back in service.

I mean we're now seeing reporting that suggests that we're not going to have a return to service until probably later in August.

It was early August before that of course to September, but you know one one interesting clue was Alaska Airlines in the introduction of their first,

Max 9, had originally been scheduled for mid-August after all of the grounding scenarios.

And now, just in the last week we saw it slide to the end of August,

August 27th. So that was an interesting hint as far as the timing. But again, there are still a lot of moving

pieces around technical items, the update to the

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