A Boeing 737 Crashed Today In Iran, Here's How It's Different From The Grounded Max 8

Ukraine International flight PS752 that was en route to Kiev, crashed in Tehran, claiming the lives of at least 170 passengers onboard.

The aircraft crashed within minutes of taking off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport and crashed near Parand -- which was around 60 kilometres south-west of the Iranian capital, according to Iran¡¯s state media. The aircraft reached an altitude of 7,925 ft before plummeting to the ground.

The aircraft was a Boeing 737-800 -- one of the most popular aircraft choices among short-route domestic airliners. However, recently, Boeing hasn¡¯t been having the best time, as the successor of Boeing 737-800 -- The Boeing 737 Max -- has been grounded for over 10 months now, after some serious design issues that has caused two crashes in last year, and has claimed many lives. However, the older Boeing 737-800 still continues to fly.

But when you look at both the aircrafts side-by-side, they look almost identical -- so does that mean people flying on the old Boeing 737-800 are as unsafe as flying on a 737 Max?

How 737 Max Is Different?

While they both look identical, there are major advancements that Boeing had packed into the 737 Max. Max was supposed to be a massive upgrade on fuel consumption and range, compared to the standard 737-800.

Not only are the wings of the Max larger than the standard 737, but they are also fitted with a slightly larger engine. Now since the engine was larger, it had been placed differently, which shifted the centre of gravity of the aircraft forward, that let the nose to pitch-up just after taking off.

To prevent this, they created a software called MCAS or Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System. The software along with a sensor that checked the aircraft¡¯s angle and made the nose angle drop mechanically if in case it was rising.

But this software was far from perfect as it would incorrectly read the sensor and push the nose downwards, surprising the pilots mid-flight. This is expected to be the reason for the Lion Air Flight 610 as well as Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.

Boeing 737-800 hasn¡¯t had such design issues

Now, the 737-800 has been in action since the 1990s and hasn¡¯t faced the aforementioned technical issues from start. Neither does it have the bigger engine and the MCAS software that the 737 Max relied upon.

The rest of the similarities haven¡¯t really affected 737-800¡¯s running in the past two decades. Sure, it has faced crashes in its runtime, but they haven¡¯t been due to a design fault on the part of Boeing. So it is safe to assume that the 737-800 aircraft are safer to board on.

The investigation for Ukranian Airlines flight PS752 is underway and we¡¯ll have to wait for some time to denote the cause of its crash.