The Federal Aviation Administration says it will increase its oversight of Boeing and its suppliers, and will re-examine the longstanding practice of allowing company employees to perform some safety analysis of its planes.
Regulators at the FAA say they will begin auditing the production of Boeing’s 737 Max 9 planes after a panel blew off an Alaska Airline flight in midair last week. The agency also said it would assess the safety risks of having delegated some of its oversight authority to Boeing.
“It is time to re-examine the delegation of authority and assess any associated safety risks,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement Friday. “The grounding of the 737-9 and the multiple production-related issues identified in recent years require us to look at every option to reduce risk.”
No one was killed during the Alaska Airlines incident, but investigators say it could have been much worse if the plane, which was at 16,000 feet when the door plug blew out, had violently depressurized at a higher altitude.
The heightened scrutiny of Boeing comes as some lawmakers and safety advocates have raised questions about the company’s quality control — and about the FAA’s ability to oversee its design and manufacturing operations.
The agency also said it would assess the safety risks of having delegated some of its oversight authority to Boeing.
In America we pay companies to regulate themselves.
When marking my own homework, it’s always 100%
My ex boss used to say “Self certification is no accolade”
true dat
—himself
That’s how individuals go to prison. Delegation is different than self inspection, though.
I mean, you have outsourced legislation to them through Citizens United, the judiciary through luxury trips for the Supreme Court, why not the executive as well?
We’ve policed ourselves and found nothing wrong!
Wait… you mean asking them to monitor themselves isn’t working? /Surprised pikachu face
I’m glad they’re doing this now, but it really should’ve been done 5 years ago. Ideally, it should’ve been done even before that.
The whole point of the FAA is to make the industry operate in such a way that failures like these are ruled out preemptively. The nature of aviation doesn’t really allow for things to fail in a safe way.
Boeing: Sorry, I couldn’t hear you over the sound of complete regulatory capture.
The agency also said it would assess the safety risks of having delegated some of its oversight authority to Boeing.
I would say that makes the FAA complicit in this.
FAA and Boeing are basically the same entity at this point.
Their reputation is in shambles. I’ll seek airbus for my family for now.
The previous huge issue with the Max, where planes were noise diving, was a result of Boeing being unable to compete with Airbus. They altered their design to hold more people, but couldn’t get it to fly straight, so they included an automated system that “auto corrected” the issue. How does a design that has to have a system that autocorrects constantly get made to begin with?
It is a whole lot more complicated than what you said but the gist of the matter is Boeing’s greediness and MBAs getting priority over Engineers.
Is that even an option for a US domestic flight?
Fwiw Kayak has built this search feature in specifically to filter out the 737 Max. It’s quite difficult to avoid Boeing, but other models are usually available, esp from American Airlines.
That’s good to know! Definitely don’t want to fly on a max for sure.
Good. That’s the FAA’s job. It must have sufficient teeth because it protects the world’s passengers (since they all use Boeing airplanes). It cannot be delegated to the manufacturers.
I love the photo in the thumbnail. “Yup, that should do it. She’s good to go!”
Deceiving thumbnail. Looks like it’s covered in yellow tape.
Boo. A taped off hole in the plane with a random window affixed is much funnier than just what’s under the interior “walls”.
Awesome. Now do trains.
Like what? Make them fly?
As someone who lives in a little tiny remote town with a lot of long no slow down freight traffic, yes. So many things happen. East Palestine was not a surprise.
That’s the FRA, and they don’t have nearly the same budget
Huh. Good!
FINALLY!
Trusting any company to do the right thing without a strong set of audits and repercussions is asking the fox to watch the hen house. The MBA types will always cut corners, then bail on the company as soon as the consequences start.
This should be standard practice for every business.
What does this statement even mean?
