The Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 which lost part of its cabin in flight on January 5, 2024 (AFP/Archives/Patrick T. Fallon)
The American civil aviation regulator (FAA), much criticized after the crash of two Boeing planes in 2019 and 2018, seems to once again be drawn into the maelstrom of the American manufacturer’s quality problems.
Targeted by numerous investigations and audits in the United States and abroad, Boeing repeatedly reminds us that it works “in complete transparency and under the supervision of the FAA”.
Since the beginning of 2023, the aircraft manufacturer has had production problems linked to poor quality control, affecting its flagship aircraft, the 737 MAX, and the 787 Dreamliner.
The in-flight loss of a cap holder on January 5 on a new Alaska Airlines plane initiated a game of dominoes that has already caused the fall of several Boeing managers – including its boss Dave Calhoun, whose departure is planned end of 2024– and the limitation of its production of 737 MAX.
The FAA, which has seen four bosses succeed one another since August 2019, has not managed to dodge it.
Boeing 737 MAXs at the manufacturer’s factory in Renton (northwest), March 25, 2024 (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/Archives/STEPHEN BRASHEAR)
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, chairman of a commission investigating Boeing safety, believes that “the FAA must also be held accountable.”
After the January incident, the regulator dispatched inspectors to the factories and gave the manufacturer 90 days to develop a “comprehensive action plan” aimed at remedying the numerous non-compliance problems identified.
– Improvement –
“I think that the FAA is doing the best it can, that it has greatly improved its monitoring of Boeing since the two accidents” of the 737 MAX 8, which left 346 dead, underlines to AFP Jeff Guzzetti, consultant in aviation safety having worked for the FAA and the NTSB investigative agency.
Four whistleblowers testified on April 17, 2024 before a Senate committee on Boeing production problems (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/Archives/Kent Nishimura)
“But, in fact, it did not spot Boeing’s production problems,” he notes, stressing that for several decades the surveillance system has been based on “self-monitoring” by manufacturers.
Indeed, due to a lack of sufficient financial and human resources, the FAA delegates to employees of manufacturers – whom it has previously approved – the task of controlling the conformity and quality of aircraft.
“There is a conflict of interest,” said Hassan Shahidi, president of the Air Transport Safety Foundation. The system “must evolve so that the FAA has more direct oversight responsibility.”
Like Jeff Guzzetti, he notes an increase in supervision but believes that the regulator must send “more” of its own inspectors and further reduce the delegation of authority.
Mike Whitaker, head of the Federal Civil Aviation Agency (FAA) since October 2023, March 11, 2024 in Washington (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/Archives/ALEX WONG)
“This will take time, and require vigilance” until then, continues Mr. Shahidi.
The organization is “on the right track” in terms of reorganization, believes Richard Aboulafia, director of the consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory. “There is nothing that cannot be corrected with additional supervision and resources.”
– “Record” financing –
This funding depends directly on Congress. Coincidentally with the calendar, the Senate adopted the FAA funding law for five years on Thursday, granting it a “record” envelope.
Families of victims of the crash of a Boeing 737 MAX in Ethiopia on March 10, 2019, demonstrate four years later in front of Boeing headquarters in Arlington (Virginia) (AFP/Archives/OLIVIER DOULIERY)
This text “provides the FAA with the stability it needs to accomplish its primary mission — advancing aviation safety,” Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell, chair of the Committee on Commerce and Transportation, said Thursday.
According to her, the regulator must embody the “reference standard in safety” and this law, which must pass through the House of Representatives, will “boost” its inspections in factories.
The shortage of qualified personnel, from mechanics to engineers, has been worsened by the pandemic and affects the entire aviation industry (supply chain, production, maintenance).
And the FAA is hardly a match for manufacturers, with its much less attractive salaries and conditions.
“It’s a big problem to recruit and retain talented technicians, even for Boeing,” said Guzzetti.
The investigation into the two crashes demonstrated that Boeing had knowingly concealed from the FAA design problems with the MCAS software, at the origin of the accidents, recalled Joe Jacobsen, a whistleblower, before the Commission in mid-April. Richard Blumenthal.
Mr. Jacobsen, who worked for 25 years at the FAA after eleven years at Boeing, considered that the regulator was “too captive” of the manufacturer.
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner at the North Charleston factory (southeast United States), December 13, 2022 (AFP/Archives/Logan Cyrus)
The regulator is attached to the Ministry of Transport, whose inspector general (OIG) has been conducting an audit since June 2022 on the FAA’s supervision of the production of the 737 and 787 – the final report is expected this summer.
The OIG concluded in 2021 that “weaknesses” in certification and delegation of authority had harmed oversight of the 737 MAX 8.
© 2024 AFP
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