The Incident of NEA Flight 203

NEA203 was a scheduled Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight between Boston and Bermuda that observed a now infamous ‘MCAS’ incident on the morning of October 21st, 2018. An incident of which could have been prevented…

The Duval family, of whom four members would serve as the CEO of New England Airlines (Theodore 1946-1968, Patrick Sr. 1969-1975, Patrick Jr. 1975-2003, Robert 2004-2013), shared a similar disdain for the McDonnell Douglas corporation which began during the 1970s with the string of incidents tied to the DC-10. They believed that McDonnell-Douglas aircraft were ‘just not safe to fly’ and proclaimed on several occasions that New England Airlines would steer clear of ordering anything from the manufacturer. Instead, they continued to take their business up with The Boeing Aircraft Company, of which the airline had a historied partnership with up to and past that point. It was a partnership that nearly spanned 80 years but would come to an end during the 1990s.

It was during the mid-to-late 90s that Patrick Duval Jr. caught wind that Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas could merge. Having such close ties with Boeing, Duval Jr. had several meetings and interactions with top Boeing executives that the idea to merge was a bad idea, especially given the fact that it would be McDonnell-Douglas tenured leadership that would take command should the merger go through. Despite their best efforts, Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas merged on August 1st, 1997. Whilst Boeing would remain the public identity post-merger, it was very much a McDonnell-Douglas-led company. With that, New England Airlines unofficially severed ties with Boeing, and continued business with industry-rival, Airbus.

New England Airlines had already begun ordering Airbus aircraft during the 90s well before the merger to diversify their fleet, so they had already amassed a fleet of them leading up to the merger. In fact, the Airbus A320 was set to become the new workhorse aircraft of the NEA Fleet with a gargantuan order of 125 A320s placed. Certainly, a move that didn’t exactly please Boeing leadership, but NEA was still ordering Boeing widebodies at the time, albeit small quantities.

The partnership with Airbus spanned well into the 21st century and remained so until 2016. In 2013, Robert Duval stepped down as CEO of New England Airlines, and passed the seat on to then-Vice President Raymond Bennett. Bennett, unlike the Duval family, was not as opposed to the idea of a Boeing fleet and would often communicate his interest in both the MAX and the A321neo as future short-haul replacements. A plan he put into action in 2016, when he announced an order for 60 737 MAX 8s, and 65 Airbus A321neos. Duval, now retired, spoke with Bennett a short time after the announcement. He stated his concern to Bennett that the move to order the MAX was ‘not the greatest choice’. Bennett assured Duval that these newer aircraft were safe, otherwise he wouldn’t have chosen to order them. While the conversation was brief, Duval’s premonition would come true 2 years later, in October of 2018.

The incident of NEA Flight 203 (story on the plane above) and subsequent Lion Air crash would bring to light the haunting realization that there was a silent killer within the 737 MAX. It would take a second MAX crash 2 months later for the global fleet to finally be grounded worldwide, and a massive investigation launched against Boeing. Raymond Bennett would say in a statement during a company meeting in 2023 that one of the biggest regrets he had as CEO to this point was not listening to Robert Duval. Of course Bennett, nor anyone at the time, had any idea that the 737 MAX was unsafe, but said nevertheless that it was 'a very close call to a very tragic day'.

New England Airlines converted their remaining 31 737 MAX 8 orders into Airbus A321neos in November of 2018, followed by an additional 80 orders in March of 2019. The 29 aircraft that were delivered would be sold off over the coming years.