Shortly before Dickson’s flight, the House
Transportation Committee approved legislation
to change the way the FAA certifies new planes,
including the agency’s reliance on employees of
Boeing and other aircraft makers to perform key
safety analysis.
The bill would not eliminate the FAA’s use
of private-sector employees to review their
own companies’ planes — lawmakers believe
it would be too expensive for FAA to do the
work, and that the aerospace companies
have more technical expertise. Instead, the
bill would give FAA approval over picking
private-sector employees who perform
safety analysis and allow civil penalties for
companies that interfere with their work.
Boeing whistleblowers complained of pressure
to approve systems on the Max.
The bill would also require plane manufacturers
to tell the FAA, airlines and pilots about
automated systems that can alter a plane’s path.
Top FAA officials and most pilots did not know
about the anti-stall system on the Max, called
MCAS, until after the first crash, in October 2018
in Indonesia. Less than five months later, another
Max crashed in Ethiopia. In all, 346 people died.
“Those crashes were the inevitable culmination
of stunning acts of omissions within Boeing
and the Federal Aviation Administration,” said
committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.
Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., a staunch defender of
the FAA, said the agency represents “the gold
standard” in aviation regulation but the crashes
show the need for improvement.
The committee approved the bill by what
appeared to be a unanimous voice vote. Rep.