2024-05-12 09:20:17
The American civil aviation regulator (FAA), which was heavily criticized after the crash of two Boeing planes in 2019 and 2018, appears to have been drawn back into the quagmire of the American manufacturer’s quality problems.
Targeted by many investigations and audits in the United States and abroad, Boeing reminds us repeatedly that it operates “with 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 started a game of dominoes that has already led to the downfall of several Boeing managers – including its boss Dave Calhoun, whose departure is planned at the end of 2024 – and limitation of production 737 MAX.
The FAA, which has had four successive bosses since August 2019, has not managed to avoid it.
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, chairman of a commission investigating Boeing’s safety, believes “the FAA needs to be held accountable as well.”
After the January incident, the regulator sent 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 the FAA is doing its best, that its monitoring of Boeing has greatly improved since the two accidents” of the 737 MAX 8, which left 346 dead, emphasized to AFP Jeff Guzzetti, a consultant in aviation safety tar after working. to the FAA and the NTSB investigative agency.
“But, in fact, it did not notice Boeing’s production problems,” he notes, stressing that the surveillance system has been based on the manufacturers’ “self-monitoring” for many years.
In fact, due to the lack of adequate financial and human resources, the FAA delegates to the employees of the manufacturers – which it previously approved – the task of controlling the conformity and quality of aircraft.
“There is a conflict of interest,” said Hassan Shahidi, president of the Aviation Safety Foundation. The system must “evolve so that the FAA has more direct oversight responsibility.”
Like Jeff Guzzetti, he notes an increase in oversight but believes the regulator needs to send “more” of its own inspectors and further reduce the delegation of authority.
“This will take time, and vigilance will be required” until then, continues Mr Shahidi.
The organization is “on the right track” in terms of reorganization, according to Richard Aboulafia, director of consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory. “There’s nothing that can’t be fixed with additional oversight and resources.”
– “Record” funding –
This funding depends directly on Congress. Coinciding with the calendar, the Senate passed the FAA’s five-year funding bill on Thursday, giving it “record” coverage.
This text “provides the stability for the FAA to achieve its primary mission — to promote aviation safety,” Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell, chairman of the Commerce and Transportation Committee, said Thursday.
According to her, the regulator must incorporate the “reference standard in safety” and this law, which must pass through the House of Representatives, will “strengthen” its inspections in factories.
The shortage of qualified personnel, from mechanics to engineers, is exacerbated by the pandemic and affects the entire aviation industry (supply chain, production, maintenance).
And the FAA is hardly on par with manufacturers, with its far less attractive salaries and conditions.
“Recruiting and retaining talented technicians is a big problem, even for Boeing,” Guzzetti said.
The investigation of the two accidents showed that Boeing was knowingly hidden 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.
Mr. Jacobsen, who worked for 25 years at the FAA after eleven years at Boeing, considered the controller to be “too restrictive” at the manufacturer.
The regulator is attached to the Ministry of Transportation, whose inspector general (OIG) has been conducting an audit since June 2022 of the FAA’s oversight of 737 and 787 production – the final report is expected this summer.
The OIG found in 2021 that “weaknesses” in certification and delegation of authority had harmed oversight of the 737 MAX 8.
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