Page 6 - AAA MAY - JUNE 2019 Online Magazine

“TRUST IN THE CERTIFICATION necessary training before the fleet returns to service. Indonesia
SYSTEM HAS BEEN DAMAGED - is likely to ask EASA or Transport Canada for a second opinion,
AMONG REGULATORS, BETWEEN according to Polana Pramesti, the country’s director-general for
air transport.
REGULATORS AND THE INDUSTRY
AND WITH THE FLYING PUBLIC,” The IATA, which organized a meeting between Max operators,
says IATA CEO Alexandre de Juniac, the FAA and Boeing in May, plans to invite regulators from around
who advocates a coordinated approval of the world, at the next round of meetings. The rift between various
Boeing software fix by various aviation safety regulatory bodies is something the association wants to settle at
agencies around the world. “While Boeing the earliest. “This is a big concern,” Gilberto Lopez Meyer, IATA’s
and the US Federal Aviation Administration senior vice president for safety and flight operations, says. “Mutual
are at centre stage, the close collaboration of recognition,” the practice of regulators relying on one another’s
counterpart manufacturers and civil aviation judgment, “is very important.”
authorities around the world are essential.”
FAA Under the Scanner
Rift Out in the Open The delay on the part of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
By international agreement, planes are certi- to ground the aircraft after the crashes, and the allegedly close
fied in the country where they are built, and the relationship the regulatory body shares with the plane maker, have
decision is rarely, if ever, questioned by regu-
latory bodies in other parts of the world. The
crashes, however, has resulted in a rift between
regulatory agencies, with the FAA on one side
and rest on the other.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency come in for plenty of scrutiny in recent weeks. A particular reve-
(EASA) has insisted on its own review of the lation, that the FAA allows employees of aerospace companies,
design changes made to the aircraft before rather than its own inspectors, to decide on certain safety issues
approving its return to service. Canada’s when an aircraft is being designed and assembled, especially
Transport Minister, Marc Garneau, has also said caused outrage. Boeing is among the 79 companies that have
that Transport Canada would do its own cer- been approved under the ODA program to let their employees work,
tification, over and above FAA’s process. The while still being on their payroll, as FAA designees to assess safety.
Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC),
which has set up a task force to review design Dan Elwell, acting director of the FAA, told the Senate Commerce
changes to the aircraft, says it would make sure Subcommittee on Aviation and Space that the agency had ini-
that every 737 MAX undergoes the necessary tially directly supervised the MCAS system before letting the
design changes and every pilot receives the Organization Designation Authorization (ODA), the controver-

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