FAA starts Boeing 737 Max test flights, a milestone in getting the planes back in service after crashes

The Federal Aviation Administration began recertification flights of the Boeing 737 Max on Monday, a key step toward permitting the planes to return to service after two fatal crashes more than a year ago.
The 737 Max, Boeing’s bestseller, has been grounded worldwide since March 2019 after the crashes — one in Indonesia and another in Ethiopia — within five months of one another. All 346 people on the flights were killed in the crashes. Boeing has since changed a flight-control system that was implicated in both crashes and has made other tweaks. Additional scrutiny of the aircraft contributed to repeated delays in the recertification process.