Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg apologized Thursday for the tragedies in which crashes of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people, according to a letter made public on the company’s website.
In his most extensive comments on the subject to date, Muilenburg acknowledged distinct similarities between the two events, including the implication certain Boeing equipment issues.
Muilenburg recognized the role in both crashes of a Boeing-approved flight system, called Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System. In certain dangerous situations, MCAS can cause pilots to lose control of an aircraft in response to erroneous data from the plane's external sensors.