FAA: NO FIX PROPOSAL YET
US air safety agency still waiting for planemaker to submit software for approval, says interim chief
THE head of the United States air safety agency said on Wednesday his agency hadn’t yet evaluated Boeing’s patch for its 737 MAX 8 jet, ahead of a summit of global aviation regulators yesterday.
The 737 MAX was grounded following the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash, which together with an Indonesian Lion Air crash in October, claimed 346 lives and were both blamed on faulty technology in the aircraft.
The summit, here, is expected to provide clues as to whether global aviation safety authorities will be willing to set aside any hesitation about the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which was the last to ground the plane and has not yet given the green light for the 737 MAX to fly again.
In a sign of work remaining to be done before the MAX 8 can fly again, interim chief Dan Elwell said FAA had not yet received Boeing’s proposed fix for the automated control system blamed in the crashes. “We are still waiting for Boeing to formally submit the software for approval.”
However, US carriers appear ready to put the plane back in the air, with American Airlines and Southwest both scheduling flights using the jet for August in the apparent hope that it will be cleared to fly then.
“But before that can happen regulators would want a lot of explanation,” said Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group. “We’re going to learn a lot.”
The FAA would prefer to have other agencies follow its lead — which previously would have been likely — but several aviation experts think that is improbable.
Fifty seven agencies from 33 countries were expected to attend the summit, including China, France, Germany, Britain, India, Indonesia and Ethiopia, as well as the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the UN International Civil Aviation Organisation.
Officials from the European Union and Canada said on Wednesday they would not clear the 737 MAX for takeoff until their questions were answered.
“There are conditions for us to have (the 737 MAX) return to fly and that is we do our independent review,” said Jagello Fayl, communications chief for the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.