Florida Mayor Wants No Such MAX

Boeing’s challenges returning the beleaguered 737 MAX now include Mark Bogen, mayor of Broward County, home to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport, who wants to prevent the 737 MAX from using…

Boeing 737 MAX

Image: Boeing

Boeing’s challenges returning the beleaguered 737 MAX now include Mark Bogen, mayor of Broward County, home to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport, who wants to prevent the 737 MAX from using the airport in his county. 

"Based on the two crashes of the 737 Max 8, Boeing needs to assure the public that the safety features are in place.” Bogen says he will insist Boeing make a number of “repairs” that include modifying the MAX’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) so that pilots can “turn it off.” 

"If they don't, I am going to go to my commissioners. I am going to go to other mayors, as well, of other cities and seek to ban that plane from landing at Ft. Lauderdale Airport. We will do whatever we can within our power to seek that plane from not landing at the airport here in Ft. Lauderdale.”

Bogen can, of course, threaten to restrict the MAX from FLL but the FAA will probably take umbrage over such a loss of authority on aviation matters. And he might want to advise Southwest Airlines, which has 63 flights a day to and from FLL, and is the largest single user of the MAX in the U.S. 

Marc CookEditor
KITPLANES Editor in Chief Marc Cook has been in aviation journalism for more than 30 years. He is a 4000-hour instrument-rated, multi-engine pilot with experience in nearly 150 types. He’s completed two kit aircraft, an Aero Designs Pulsar XP and a Glasair Sportsman 2+2, and currently flies a 2002 GlaStar.