Page 6 - AAA OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2019 Online Magazine

the airplane would be back in service before
the end of the year, but in a brief statement to
reporters before addressing a Senate panel,
there was no mention of that. “We have studied
both crashes and we know what to fix,” he said.
“Once the Max returns to fly, it will be the safest
airplane in the sky.”

Erring on the Side of Caution
There is general consensus among aviation
safety agencies around the world that the air-
craft shouldn’t be rushed back into service. The
FAA, which was the last regulatory agency to
ground the aircraft, responded to the NTSC
report by saying that it had not set a timetable
authorities from Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Singapore, to approve the plane’s re-entry into service and
Japan, Brazil, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, said in its that “Boeing 737 Max will return to service only
report, submitted in October, that the FAA and Boeing were at fault after the FAA determines it is safe.”
on several fronts. The regulatory agency needs to modernize its International regulators have indicated that
aircraft certification process to account for increasingly complex even if FAA approves the airplane’s return to
automated systems by ensuring that aircraft incorporate fail-safe service, they would pursue their own safety
design principles that don’t rely too heavily on pilot input, the report analysis of the aircraft before it flies again in
said. Boeing was pulled up for its “inadequate communications” to their skies. Industry experts say cooperation
the FAA about the MCAS, inadequate pilot training and shortage among various safety agencies is crucial to
of technical staff. regain public confidence. Airline chiefs say that
Boeing must convince regulators worldwide,
Trying to Regain Trust and not just the FAA, of the 737’s safety, if it’s
The company is working hard to earn back the confidence of reg- to restore faith in the model.
ulators and operators. Boeing has redesigned the Maneuvering “Trust in the certification system has been
Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) software that damaged - among regulators, between regula-
tors and the industry and with the flying public,”
says IATA CEO Alexandre de Juniac, who
advocates a coordinated approval of Boeing
software fix by various aviation safety agencies
around the world. “While Boeing and the US
Federal Aviation Administration are at centre
stage, the close collaboration of counterpart
manufacturers and civil aviation authorities
around the world are essential.” The continu-
ing lack of unanimity among the regulators has
the IATA worried. “With the 737 MAX we are a
bit worried ... because we don’t see the normal
unanimity among international regulators that
was at fault in both the crashes, updated operation manuals and should be the case,” de Juniac told reporters
sought feedback from pilots of Max operators around the world in September, in Chicago.
after providing them simulator sessions with software updates.
It has conducted over 800 test and production flights with the FAA Under the Scanner
new software. In October, the company said that it had added The delay on the part of the FAA to ground
flight control computer redundancy to MCAS and three additional the aircraft after the crashes, and the allegedly
layers of protection. It has also successfully completed a dry-run close relationship the regulatory body shares
of a certification flight test and submitted to the Federal Aviation with the plane maker, have come in for plenty
Administration (FAA) a “final software load” and “complete system of scrutiny in the months since the plan was
description” of revisions to the plane. grounded in March. The Congress, the FBI and
“We know that the public’s confidence has been hurt by these Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao have
accidents and that we have work to do to earn and re-earn the called for investigations into the FAA’s certifi-
trust of the flying public, and we will do that,” Muilenburg said at an cation process.
investor conference in New York in May. “We are taking all actions A particular revelation, that the FAA allows
necessary to make sure that accidents like those two never happen employees of aerospace companies, rather
again.” The company CEO had earlier expressed optimism that than its own inspectors, to decide on certain

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