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Boeing grounded its entire 737 Max fleet, halting deliveries of
its best selling commercial airliner after an Ethiopian Airlines
flight crashed in March last year. It was the second 737 Max to
crash in a matter of months. A Lion Air plane crashed in
Indonesia in October, 2018. A total of 346 peopled died in the
two crashes.
The expert panel, led by a retired Air Force general and a
former head of the Air Lines Pilot Association, also called for
improvements in how the Federal Aviation Administration
certifies new planes. But it did not back ending the
long-standing practice of delegating some certification tasks to
aircraft manufacturers.
The panel, which was named by Transportation Secretary Elaine
Chao in April, recommended the FAA mandate Safety Management
Systems (SMS) for "design and manufacturing organizations." The
FAA currently requires Safety Management Systems for airlines.
The special committee report released Thursday said "unlike the
current certification system’s focus on compliance, SMSs foster
a holistic assessment of whether the combinations of actions
such as design, procedures, and training work together to
counter potential hazards."
Boeing's safety culture was harshly criticized last week after
it released hundreds of internal messages about the development
of the 737 MAX, including one that said the plane was "designed
by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys."
FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said last year he wants to move
"toward a more holistic versus transactional, item-by-item
approach to aircraft certification."
U.S. House Transportation Committee chairman Peter DeFazio last
month said his panel's review of the fatal crashes found "a
broken safety culture within Boeing and an FAA that was
unknowing, unable or unwilling to step up, regulate, and provide
appropriate oversight of Boeing."
The special committee said new aircraft testing "should include
multiple failure mode scenarios and involve trained
pilots who reflect a representation of the anticipated end-users
of the product."
National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt
said in September that crews in the two fatal crashes "did not
react in the ways Boeing and the FAA assumed they would."
The special committee said the FAA should propose to the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) "the sharing of
operational data internationally to enhance safety."
The report also said the FAA needs an "aggressive recruitment
campaign to encourage students to pursue careers at the FAA" and
should address "concerns about potential undue pressure" on
Boeing employees conducting FAA certification tasks.
The Justice Department and Transportation Department's Office of
Inspector General are both investigating the 737 MAX
certification.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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