FAA starts its bid to restore confidence in Boeing’s Max

Bloomberg

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) took a potentially important step towards rebuilding confidence not only in the Boeing Co 737 Max but also in the agency itself, convening a week-long summit of civil aviation regulators from Brussels to Beijing.
Led by former National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Christopher Hart, delegates from eight overseas nations and the European Union are meeting in Seattle to examine the FAA’s original certification of the Max as safe to fly, including the automated flight control system linked to two crashes since October that killed a combined 346 people.
“The point of this body is to attempt to instill confidence globally in the 737 Max and the agency that certified it,” said Jeffrey Guzzetti, the former director of the FAA’s Accident Investigation Division, who is not on the panel.
Boeing and the FAA have been subjected to withering scrutiny from lawmakers, government watchdogs and prosecutors following the 737 Max’s worldwide grounding, now entering its seventh week. Much of that has been focussed on how much was known about the Max’s anti-stall countermeasure and how much sway Boeing had in the jet’s certification by the FAA.
More than 40 nations from the UK to Australia rejected public reassurances from the FAA after the second crash in Ethiopia last month and grounded the Max before the US agency followed suit — a remarkable rebuke for a body that has been a regulatory leader since the dawn of the jet age.
Boeing’s global rival Airbus SE said it’s concerned that the Max crisis may undermine an alignment between the FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency that’s been key to easing cooperation in the industry for years. “These events are creating a lot of tensions and questions,” Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said on an earnings call. “It’s a concern at this stage, it’s too early to draw conclusions.”
South Korean authorities meanwhile plan to determine independently whether the Max should be cleared to fly again in its airspace, according to a transport ministry official. The Asian nation plans to closely monitor steps taken by regulators in Europe and China, the first country to ground the Max, said the person, who wasn’t allowed to speak publicly and asked not to be identified.
Lawsuits against Boeing filed by two Canadians whose family members died in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 also called the FAA “equally culpable” in the accidents for approving the Max “despite its substantial flaws.”
“The relationship between Boeing and the FAA left a lot of questions,” said Michael Barr, an aviation safety expert at the University of Southern California. “They need a third party, a neutral party with a lot of respect in the industry to evaluate that relationship and see whether or not there needs to be a change.”
The panel aims to do so quickly. The so-called Joint Authorities Technical Review has been asked to complete its findings within 90 days, far faster than the ongoing inquiries and audits by accident investigators, government watchdogs, prosecutors and lawmakers.
The review panel was asked by the FAA to “conduct a comprehensive review of the certification of the automated flight control system on the Boeing 737 Max aircraft,” the agency said. It can also make recommendations for improvements on the plane.
The panel includes representatives from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the EU, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore and the UAE.