Boeing 737 cockpit screens go blank if pilots land on specific runways

Odd thing haunts Next Generation airliner family

Boeing's 737 Next Generation airliners have been struck by a peculiar software flaw that blanks the airliners' cockpit screens if pilots dare attempt a westwards landing at specific airports.

Amid the various well-reported woes facing America's largest airframe maker, yet another one has emerged from the US Federal Aviation Administration; a bug that causes all pilots' display screens in the 737-NG airliner family to simply go blank.

That bug kicks in when airliner crews try to program the autopilot to follow what the FAA described as "a selected instrument approach to a specific runway".

Seven runways, of which five are in the US, and two in South America - in Colombia and Guyana respectively – trigger the bug. Instrument approach procedures guide pilots to safe landings in all weather conditions regardless of visibility.

"All six display units (DUs) blanked with a selected instrument approach to a runway with a 270-degree true heading, and all six DUs stayed blank until a different runway was selected," noted the FAA's airworthiness directive, summarising three incidents that occurred on scheduled 737 flights to Barrow, Alaska, in 2019.

[link to www.theregister.co.uk (secure)]