Certification
there had been lapses in the aircraft’s certification
process and called in to question the Federal Aviation
Authority’s (FAA) oversight role.
The agency was accused of handing too much control
of the certification process to Boeing as the aircraft
maker raced to get the 737 Max to market and of not
taking sufficient time to fully understand the automated
system that contributed to the crash. In a statement the
FAA insists that it has “never allowed companies to
police themselves or self-certify their aircraft” and that
“FAA experts, including chief scientists, engineers and
flight test pilots, conducted in-flight testing of the flight
control system, including the MCAS.”
A QUESTION OF COMPETENCY
A report into the Max’s certification published last
October by the Joint Authorities Technical Review (JATR)
The worldwide grounding of the 737 Max
following two fatal crashes in less than
five months may turn out to be the worst
crisis in Boeing’s 104-year history. The
aircraft was removed from service in March 2019 after
an automated featured known as the Maneuvering
Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was
implicated in the crashes of a Lion Air flight in Indonesia
and an Ethiopian Airlines jet in Ethiopia.
The grounding of its best-selling plane has hit the
US-aircraft maker hard. Costs are likely to surpass US$18
billion, almost 20% of Boeing’s annual sales. While the
long term damage to its brand remains to be seen, the
company’s own research shows that 40% of regular
travelers are unwilling to fly on the Max.
But other reputations have been tarnished by the
crisis. In the wake of the groundings media reported that
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