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#PaxEx Podcast: Max Flight and Mary Kirby on why no-MAX flight

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Welcome to Episode 65 of the #PaxEx Podcast, which tracks how the airline passenger experience is evolving in a mobile, social, vocal world.

In this episode – available on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts – co-hosts Max Flight and Mary Kirby discuss the number one #PaxEx news story making headlines – the grounding of the entire world fleet of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft after the tragic crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board.

After Mary breaks down the timeline of events that led to the United States’ decision to ground the MAX, after most countries had already done so, Max and Mary explain why, irrespective of the findings of the investigation of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash, passenger fear and public perception is valid. An industry that ignores passenger fear does so at its peril.

Max and Mary also look at the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System [MCAS] – the technology at the heart of the discussion around MAX safety – and consider whether the relationships between major US aerospace corporations and the FAA have grown too cozy.