Boeing worried pilots aren’t strong enough for 737 – The Wall Street Journal

Boeing is still working on a patch to its troubled 737 MAX 8. According to this article, the latest issue to arise is that an emergency override crank requires significant physical strength to turn. Safety regulators worry that this may be challenging, especially for women pilots who may – in some cases – be less strong than their male counterparts. To me, this issue just serves to underscore the problems with Boeing's approach to safety and design. Women have been flying commercial airplanes since 1973. It can hardly come as a shock to Boeing that female pilots exist – they have had over 40 years to get used to the idea. So why on earth wouldn't this be a factor in their thinking about safety and design? There are many ways to make a crank that does not rely on brute physical strength. Indeed, the principal of the lever has been around for thousands of years. The fact that this apparently never occurred to Boeing illustrates, to me, a lack of joined-up thinking in its design and engineering teams. Perhaps it's no surprise to find that its safety systems leave something to be desired. – Felicity Duncan

Boeing's Latest 737 MAX Concern: Pilots' Physical Strength

By Andy Pasztor and Andrew Tangel

LE BOURGET, France—Efforts to get Boeing Co.'s 737 MAX jetliners back in the air have been delayed in part by concerns about whether the average pilot has enough physical strength to turn a manual crank in extreme emergencies.

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