Deepest condolences to the families and friends of China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 that went down with all hands.
It is important to note that the plane that has crashed is a Boeing 737 Next Gen, the predecessor to the 737-800 (Max) discussed in my posts and podcasts.
The 737 NG first flew commercially in 1997 and production was closed down in 2019. This model is the primary version produced by Boeing in China. It has an exemplary safety record.
The aircraft that went down today was 7 years old. It had completed 500 miles of a 650 mile flight.
It is too early to tell what happened or if any aspects of High Reliability Organizing are involved.
For High Reliability practitioners a recent documentary was released regarding crashes with the Boeing 737Max. To restate: this is the successor to the 737NG and has been the cause of two terrible crashes that claimed all lives on both aircraft.
Here’s a collection of resources to understand this different situation and how losing a culture of High Reliability caused it to happen.