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5th anniversary of Lion Air 737-Max crash: Lessons learned

It's been five years since a Boeing 737-MAX crashed in Indonesia, killing all on board. This was the first of two crashes that led to a grounding of the MAX fleet.

EVERETT, Wash. — On Oct. 29, 2018, a 737-Max Jet flown by Indonesia's Lion Air crashed off the coast, killing all 189 on board. 

Just four months later in March, there was a Max crash in Ethiopia killing 157 people including Chris Moore's daughter, Danielle.

"Everyone and their brother forget about the first crash," Chris Moore said. "There was a first crash. That was a sign. A signal that something was wrong."

Chris Moore described his daughter as someone who was mindful and that her death was a huge loss to society.

"I can only describe her as a super activist," Chris Moore said. "She was our navigator. She was our bright light."

Chris Moore believes more should have been done to prevent this second crash, "It really should have been a wakeup call."

Days after the Ethiopia crash, the FAA grounded the 737-Max for 20 months. 

"The problem was with the training and that one embedded feature that was allowed to make a single point failure if the pilots failed," said John Nance, aviation expert.

"The biggest lesson is both the importance of human factors in terms of reliability and safety of the airliner," said Jeff Marcus, National Transportation Safety Board's Chief of the Safety Recommendations Division.

The NTSB said it wasn't a matter of incompetence by the pilots, but rather a lack of knowledge. Expert John Nance said to move forward, Boeing had to rectify the problem. 

"We failed to understand that we were not instituting this knowledge in people's heads," Nance said. "That was one of the questions and solving that has been an avenue to a lot of relief on all our parts in commercial aviation." 

Scrutiny fell on the FAA over lax oversight of Boeing, saying the regulator allowed the company to put profits over safety. Boeing had to make updates to its software, computer and pilot training in order to get their jets back in the sky. 

"I think it's perfectly normal and correct at this point in time for everybody to have an awful lot of confidence that Boeing has learned the lessons," Nance said. "Airbus has learned the lessons that Boeing has learned and the whole community is better for it."

But many victims' families said this isn't over. Chris Moore is one of the families with an open lawsuit, he said they'll continue fighting for more safety.

"I've lost not just a daughter, I've lost a family and that's what people don't understand," Chris Moore said. "It's not something you get over."

Through September of this year, Boeing has secured orders for 566 737-Max planes and delivered 280. 

Boeing declined an interview but did send KING 5 a statement saying, "We will never forget the lives lost in these accidents, and their memory drives us every day to uphold our responsibility to all who depend on the safety of our products."

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