The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it was expanding its scrutiny of Boeing, increasing oversight of the company with an audit of 737 Max 9 production, a week after a panel in the body of one of those planes exploded during the flight. .
Later Friday night, the FAA said it was requiring an initial round of panel inspections (a plug where an exit door would go in a different configuration) on 40 Max 9 planes before approving proposed inspection and maintenance instructions. by Boeing for all grounded aircraft. Maximum 9s. The agency said it needed more information about the inspection process before it could approve Boeing's distribution guidelines.
The grounded planes, 171 in total in the United States, will not be cleared to fly again until they are inspected, which could take several days, but possibly much longer, once the FAA has approved an inspection process.
About 20 percent of Alaska Airlines' fleet is made up of Max 9 aircraft, and the company has already had to cancel about the same number of its flights in recent days as a result of the flight suspension. United Airlines is the largest user of the plane in the United States, although the plane represents only 8 percent of the largest company's fleet.
“We are working to make sure nothing like this happens again,” said the agency's administrator, Mike Whitaker said in a statement. “Our only concern is the safety of American travelers, and the Boeing 737-9 Max will not return to the skies until we are completely satisfied that it is safe.”
The FAA's audit of Boeing will evaluate whether the company and its suppliers complied with approved quality control practices. The agency also said it would take a closer look at the Max 9 problems and investigate safety risks associated with the agency's practice of outsourcing some oversight to authorized Boeing employees, which some lawmakers and safety experts criticized after two 737 Max 8 airplane crashes that killed 346 people. .
“It is time to reexamine the delegation of authority and evaluate any associated security risks,” Whitaker said in a statement. “The grounding of the 737-9 and the multiple production-related issues identified in recent years require us to explore all options to reduce risk.”
There were no serious injuries from last week's crash, but the episode could have been much more catastrophic if it had occurred when the plane was at cruising altitude; The door plug exploded when the plane was at 16,000 feet and still climbing after taking off from Portland, Oregon. Investigators are focusing on what caused the door plug to suddenly tear off the plane.
Alaska Airlines canceled Max 9 flights until this weekend. On Friday, United said it had canceled all Max 9 flights through Tuesday to reduce uncertainty, shifting other planes for some flights and rebooking most customers on others.
United said its technicians were continuing to prepare for formal inspections to begin and were sharing what they found with the FAA.
“As we have said before, these aircraft will not fly until they are approved and we are confident that they are 100% safe,” the airline said in a statement.
On Thursday, the FAA announced an investigation into whether Boeing failed to ensure the plane met standards and was safe to operate.
Boeing said in a statement that it welcomed “the FAA's announcement and will cooperate fully and transparently with our regulator.”
“We support all actions that strengthen quality and safety,” the company added, “and we are taking measures across our entire production system.”
For years, the FAA has outsourced some oversight of the certification of airplanes and airplane parts to corporate employees. After a lengthy investigation into the design, development and certification of the Max, House Democrats criticized that practice, saying the agency had outsourced too much responsibility to Boeing employees, who may not be independent enough.
On Friday, Whitaker, whom the Senate confirmed as FAA administrator in October, said he would be willing to take another look at the program. He also said the agency was exploring using an independent third party to oversee Boeing's inspections and its quality system.
Some aviation experts say the practice is necessary given the FAA's limited resources and that changing it would require Congress to give the agency more money and authority to hire more professionals.
Arjun Garg, former chief counsel and acting deputy administrator at the FAA, said the agency did not have the resources to inspect every aspect of an airplane. Bringing in-house all the work that has been delegated to Boeing and other manufacturers in the aviation industry would overwhelm the agency's workforce and budget, Garg said.
“I don't think you can blame Congress for this or the FAA,” he added. “That's how the system was designed, given the need to have security oversight and the practicality of resource constraints.”
Outsourcing oversight is common among regulators, but a 2022 Government Accountability Office report found that the FAA did not audit the practice as closely as the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. That year, the FAA said it had strengthened oversight of the practice by better protecting the company's substitute employees from interference.
A day before the FAA statement, Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Washington state Democrat who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, called on the FAA to increase its oversight of manufacturers, including contractors like Spirit AeroSystems, which produces the fuselage of the 737. Maximum for Boeing.
“The public deserves a comprehensive evaluation of Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems to strengthen production quality and aviation safety,” Cantwell said in a statement Friday.
