FAA Names Boeing Safety Inspection Panel

DALLAS - The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that a new commission of experts will review Boeing's safety management practices regarding their influence on the company after the fatal crashes and grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX series.

This safety board is comprised of 24 aviation engineers and experts. It will dedicate the next nine months to investigating and issuing all findings and recommendations for improving safety methodology inside the Seattle-based manufacturer.

The new panel is the latest step in the FAA's efforts to tighten its oversight of Boeing. The regulator now thoroughly inspects all newly built 737 MAXs before delivery to ensure that all corrections have been implemented. This follows the accidents of two 737-8s in Indonesia and Ethiopia, which claimed the lives of 346 people

The Boeing 737 MAX family has captured over 5,000 gross orders, from which almost 1000 have already been delivered. It is one of the company's most successful yet controversial airframes ever made.

The grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX delayed deliveries for more than two years. This unit was built in July 2019 and delivered to Aeromexico in June 2021. Photo: Brandon Farris/Airways.

About The FAA Safety Board

Among the 24 members of the safety panel are experts from NASA, the FAA, various labor unions, and big companies such as Airbus, American Airlines (AA), General Electric, and Pratt & Whitney.

One of the members is Javier de Luis: a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, whose sister was one of the passengers on board Ethiopian flight ET302 and died in the accident.

De Luis declared that he applied to join the commission to further the efforts of victims' families to ensure crashes won't repeat in the future.

"What happened with the Max was a complex series of events. However, that doesn't mean it's too complex to fix. I'm hoping to do my part," he said.

Recently, the investigation of the crash of ET302 commenced a new campaign of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), who express their dissatisfaction with the results, possibly directing now their search to new evidence that could clarify even more the cause of the failure of MCAS.

https://airwaysmag.com/us-investigators-ethiopian-crash/

Featured image: A group of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft stored in Victorville: Luca Flores/Airways.