And this is the new 737. This was a new plane. The new iteration of that workhorse of the commercial Aviation Industry, but in that new plane something happened shortly after take off in october. The pilots were reportedly basically wrestling with the plane trying to get the nose up but an automatic leveling future in the plane seems to have been fighting them pushing the nose down. The pilots on that flight requested permission to return to the airport because of the trouble they were having with that aircraft, but shortly after making that request, the plane went down, hit the ocean. 189 People Killed. Then this weekend on sunday,ethe 737 max 8. The new ititeration. 157 people were killed and the circumstances appear to have been remarkably similar. The investigation into the crash this weekend in ethiopia has just begun. We dont know how closely it will be mapped onto the circumstances of that other recent plane crash of that other same kind of plane in indonesia, but this one was very soon after take off, while the plane was ascending, flight data shows the plane initially assented as normal then descended, then it ascended sharply again while accelerating and as in the previous crash in indonesia, the pilot radioed back and asked to return to the airport from which he had just taken off because of the trouble he was having with the aircraft but soon after relaying that request, again, the flight crashed. No survivors. 157 people dead. Now it was the same kind of plane in each crash. Boeing insists these planes are safe. But after these two crashes, under remarkably similar circumstances, nearly 350 People Killed between them, i mean, in the modern age, in the modern aviation age, trained commercial pilots flying large commercial passenger jets just dont crash them very often. This doesnt happen let alone twice in five months. And you know maybe its just a coincidence that these two brandnew jets of the exact same kind came down in similar circumstances within just a few months of each other, but now that both of these crashes have happened in this close proximity, news organizations including the a. P. And Dallas Morning News this afternoon today have been scanning a u. S. Database where american commercial pilots can voluntarily report aviation incidents and aviation concerns. And it turns out that in this publicly accessible data base, there is a whole bunch of reports that show american pilots flying american commercial flights expressing not just concerns about this particular new boeing aircraft but american pilots on domestic flights describing the same difficulty on take off, the same specific problem where they are ascending after take off, rising towards the cruising altitude when something in the Automated Systems in that plane basically takes over and pulls the nose down. Here is one from a first officer. So from basically the copilot of a boeing 737 max. This is a u. S. Flight that happened sometime in november 2018. Quote, day three of three departing in a max 8 after a long overnight, i was well rested. On departure we had strong cross winds directly off the right wing. The aircraft accelerated normally and the captain engaged the a auto pilot after reaching set speed. Within two to three seconds, the aircraft pitched nose down. I called descending just prior to an Aircraft Safety system sounding, dont sync, the captain disconnected auto pilot and pitched into a claim. The remainder of the flight was uneventful. We discussed the departure at month and i reviewed the setup and flight profile but cant think of any reason the aircraft would pitch nose down so aggressively. Thats from a first officer. Here is another one. This one is from an american captain this time from the pilot. Reporting on a domestic flight in the United States, again sometime in november of 2018 and this captain describes a remarkably similar circumstance. After what the captain describes as a take off and climb in light to moderate turbulence, the planes nose started to dive. Quote, the pilot Monitoring System called descending followed by an almost immediate dont sync, dont sync. The pilot Monitoring System called descending but an almost immediate dont sink, dont sink. It was engaged and resumed climb. With the concerns with the max 8 nose down stuff, we both thought it appropriate to bring it to your attention. So in this data base, again, this place where pilots and first officers can report concerns and flight difficulty without worrying about career repercussions for themselves, they post this information and allow it to go into this data base, the end is blunt. Captain reports auto pilot anomaly that lead to an undesired nose down brief situation. So these things i mean, these are out there in this public data base. Quote, aircraft pitched nose down after engaging auto pilot on departure. And, you know, i am not a trained aviation professional, statistically speaking, neither are you but safety professionals, the world over are all having the same reaction to all of this news. As of today, the list of countries that has suspended all flights of this specific type of boeing aircraft includes the u. K. , france, germany, australia, china, singapore, uea, kuwait, malaysia, indone a indonesia, stop he when you heard enough. After a bunch of major European Countries started individually banning 737 max 8s today the overall safety regulator for the European Union stepped in and for the e. U. Blocked all flights by these boeing planes in addition to specific Airlines Taking it upon themselves to stop flights by these planes whether or not their country of origin or country banned them, and this is i mean, this is an unequivocal reaction everywhere outside the United States. Some countries including the u. K. Arent just banning take offs and landings but banning over flights by these planes. Which means they wont allow these planes to be flown over their air space. These flights are to be kept these planes are to be kept out of their air space until further notice even if they dont plan on lending inside the u. K. But thats not how its been handled in the United States which is the International Gold standered and international artaylor as Passenger Airline safety standards. As these Global Airlines and countries around the world banned flights by these boeing aircraft, here is our faa as of tonight. Quote, thus far our review shows no system performance issues and provides no basis to order grounding the aircraft. Now i mean, this could be happening at any time in modern american history, right . This type of crisis in the global Aviation Industry is the sort of Technology Driven surprise external security crisis that you dont wish on anybody, right . It makes you wish and hope and pray for competence and capacity in the leadership youve got that has to deal with the crisis like this at all levels. Right . This is the sort of thing that wants you to have really good, really smart, really qualified people in place when this crisis araisi arising. When this happens now at this point in our country, of course, we have some novel concerns right now in our country that we might not necessarily have with any other president in place, with any other president ial administration in place for example, that statement from the f. A. A. Today saying everything is fine as far as they can tell, everything is fine, no need to worry you can see that statement was put out in the name of the acting f. Act fiing faa administrator but is a little bit odd if you think about it this far into the Trump Administration, more than two years into the trump presidency, why do we still have an acting administrator in place at faa . He has been there since president obamas faa administrator left the job when his term came to an end in january 2018 well over a year ago and again, im not casting aspersions whatsoever but the reason there isnt a Senate Confirmed official pearl innocent le permanent leader is because President Trump hasnt formally nominated anybody for the job. Within the last few days he said that or its been report that he is expected to name ade delt executive for the job but nobody is nominated yet and this time last year the guy he was putting forward as his first choice for the job, remember that . Own personal pilot, President Trump wanted to install as the ad minuadministrator of the faa guy that flies the trump plane. Not air force one but the plane that says trump on it. Remember the one from the campaign . I remember at the time they even tried to roll this out like it was some sort of, you know, some sort of like bold smart move by trump he would tap his own planes pilot to run the faa. They rolled out an Anonymous Administration official to try to sell reporters on it. Quote, john duncan isnt just a pilot, he over saw the trump president ial campaigns air fleet. Says anonymous white house official put out for this purpose. He over saw the trump campaigns air fleet. Wow. No one is disputing thats true but remember during the campaign when the trump president ial Campaign Plane got grounded for awhile . The heat of the campaign. Like april, late april 2016. The reason his Campaign Plane got grounded is because it turned out they have been flying that jet for months without it being registered. Oops. Yeah, well, the director of aviation for the Trump Organization who is responsible both for flying the plane and for directing all aviation operations for making sure that stuff like i dont know, the plane is registered so it can legally fly, thats the guy who President Trump initially tapped to put in charge of americas 18 billion federal Regulatory Agency overseeing the International Gold standard in airline safety. Hes so good at flying my plane except for the fact that its un well, you know, look, hes an expert, he works for me. Hes got to be the best. Only the best people. That did not work out. That time the president wanted to nominate his personal pilot to run the faa, that did not ultimately come to fruition but apparently, thats the only person he wanted is as far as he can imagine in terms of a good person for the job. Here we are two years into the Trump Administration, there is still an acting director and now tonight, the faa increasingly stands alone on the International Stage in saying these boeing planes are fine. We see no problem whatsoever here. And again, there are just novel concerns we never had to think about before this presidency. But since President Trump has been in office, the ceo of boeing, the company that makes these planes has made a point of visiting with the president at the private for profit club maralago since this crisis has emerged, its reported today that same ceo has been personally lobbying the president by phone surely reminding him of his maralago trips and telling him the plane is great and no problem and shouldnt be grounded here in the United States. Everything is fine. Boeing says they are fine and as of right now, thats what the faa is saying, too, alone in the world. Now that position by the president and by the faa is being rejected on a bipartisan basis on capitol hill rejected by senators who range from Elizabeth Warren to ted cruz to d Diane Feinstein to mitt romney. There are multiple bipartisan statements from senators all over the country defying the president on this and defying the faa calling on these planes to be grounded in the United States like they are all around the world. Senator cruz oversees a sea a key subcommittee that has oversight responsibilities in the Aviation Industry senator cruz says he will convene an emergency hearing to try to address this matter. You might remember back in the Obama Administration in 2013 there was another boeing plane that was ordered grounded all across the United States. Do you remember that . That wasnt the 737, that was the boeing 787 and back in 2013, all of those planes were grounded on orders from the u. S. Government when there was what seemed to be a reoccurring problem with over heating battery packs, over heating lithium ion batty ery packs andt that time, president obamas treasury secretary ordered boeing to ground the 787s and lasted less than a month, boeing crafted a new part of little fire resistant compartment to put around those batteries and that passed muster and ultimately, the planes were become up and flying. The transportation secretary in the Obama Administration was former republican congressman ray la hood and spoke with the Associated Press today in the context of this new crisis. He pointed out today that even if the faa continues with this line that everything is fine, nothing is worth worrying about here, were not going to do anything, if the faa hues to this line, ray la hood is pointing out that trumps transportation secretary who is now eileen chow, she has the power if she so chooses to overall the faa and to herself order the grounding of these boeing 737s if she feels like it is warranted, she can do it on her own say so as secretary of transportation. Ray la hood reminding transportation secretary eileen chow of her power to do so and calling on her to do that in the case of these boeing 737 maxes. These planes are being grounded all over the world. In some cases, not just take offs and landings but oversights. Airlines all over the world are stopping flying these boeing planes. In some cases today, airlines that had flights in the air, this type of plane in the air, in some cases airlines today turned those flights around midair, flew them back to where they started and grounded them once they landed. Wouldnt even let them complete their flights. While here in the United States weve got a president whose been perm ly personally chatting to the ceo on this matter telling him everything is fine, nothing is worth worrying about here, hey, do you maybe want to play golf next week . The president s faa would now be led by the president s pilot from his own private jet if the president had had his way on the matter with the faa, but he didnt. As a consolation prize, we still have no permanent person running that agency more than two years into this presidency. The faa for its part in all this says everything is fine. No need to worry. Now congress may try to act including republicans in congress who may try to act. The transportation secretary has the option to act although she is the wife of the Top Republican in the senate, Mitch Mcconnell so maybe its hard to imagine her making such a decision inside the political cross winds. But there is one other piece of this that you may not have heard about today that you should know about in the middle of this crisis. And honestly, you should know about it because i think it will curl your hair. Again, remember based on these two recent crashes of this type of plane that have killed almost 350 people, based on those crashes and based on other similar descriptions from american pilots describing domestic flights in the u. S. In this type of plane, describing a similar problem they have encountered in these planes, remember that what pilots at least are describing as the problem here, what their perceived problem with this aircraft is, appears to be related to some kind of automated system, automated leveling system in this plane that for some reason on departure has a propensity of episode of a problem in which it unexpectedly yanks the planes nose down toward the ground when the plane is supposed to be climbing. Well, the good news is it turns out that boeing has in the works a software fix that they believe will address that problem in these planes. Good. The wall street journal had the scoop on this this afternoon and where it ends is not good. But here is where it starts, quote, boeing is making an extensive change to the Flight Control system in these 737 max aircraft. Going beyond what many industry officials familiar with the discussions anticipated. The change would mark a major shift how boeing originally designed a stall prevention feature in the aircraft. The Company Spokesman confirmed the update would use multiple sensors and data feeds in the stall prevention system instead of the current reliance and prompted by lion air and those crash investigation results indicated that erroneous data from a single sensor that measures the angle of the planes nose caused the stall prevention system to misfire and a series of events put the aircraft into a dangerous dive. The anticipated software fix from boeing will limit the extent of the Flight Control systems downward push on the planes nose. That seeps lims like a good ide. How soon will it be ready . U. S. Regulators are expected to mandate this change by the end of next month. Okay. So thats still a ways off but in the works and they believe they got a way to fix the accidental nosedive problem. You know, why didnt you say so . How soon could this have been ready . Should it have been ready before the ethiopia plane crash that killed 157 people . Is the back story on the timing