US senator to propose bill to require new FAA safety efforts

[August 01, 2024]  By David Shepardson
 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell said she plans to introduce legislation on Thursday to require the Federal Aviation Administration to use advanced safety measures after a series of problems with Boeing jets.  

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) listens during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing titled "Improving Rail Safety in Response to the East Palestine Derailment" in Washington, U.S., March 22, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

"We really think the FAA needs to have its own process," Cantwell said of safety management systems, which are sets of policies and procedures to proactively identify and address potential operational hazards.

She also said she still plans to call Boeing to testify even after the company named Kelly Ortberg as its new CEO on Wednesday. Cantwell, who represents the state of Washington, added the new CEO of Boeing should be based in Seattle, where much of the planemaker's manufacturing is located. "I think the notion that somebody thinks they can run the company from anywhere other than Seattle is a big mistake," Cantwell said. A source confirmed that Ortberg plans to be based in Seattle.

Cantwell asked the FAA to conduct a thorough review into its oversight of Boeing, which moved its headquarters to Chicago in 2001 after a merger with McDonnell Douglas. In 2023 it moved its headquarters to Arlington, Virginia.

She also raised serious questions about the government's scrutiny of the planemaker, according to a letter first reported by Reuters Tuesday.

She said the FAA in April disclosed that it had conducted a combined total of 298 audits of Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems over the prior two years that "did not result in any enforcement actions."

Cantwell said Wednesday those reviews had been lacking.

"Clearly, they were doing an audit that meant nothing, because it didn't detect any problems and they said everything was fine," she said. "Now we have to turn our attention to the FAAs processes and understand what problems existed in their oversight."

Last month, FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said the agency was "too hands off" in oversight of Boeing before a mid-air emergency in a new 737 MAX 9 and faulted its prior audits.

Reuters first reported Cantwell's planned SMS bill earlier this month. U.S. airlines have been required to have SMS since 2018 and some aerospace companies, such as Boeing, already voluntarily have SMS programs.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter and David Gregorio)

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