Boeing, federal regulator slammed in 737 Max report
A ‘‘culture of concealment’’ at Boeing and ‘‘grossly insufficient’’ federal oversight of the 737 Max contributed to two crashes of the jets within months of one another that killed 346 people, according to a report released by House Democrats.
The report, based on internal company documents, testimony from whistleblowers and public hearings, sets up a push in coming weeks to overhaul how the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ensures the safety of new aircraft designs.
The leaders of the House Transportation Committee have concluded that Boeing and the FAA both failed the public.
Democratic Congressmen Peter DeFazio (Oregon) and Rick Larsen (Washington) will use the findings to help bolster their case that significant reform is needed to strengthen the government’s hand in dealing with Boeing, one of the nation’s biggest companies.
The report concludes that the FAA’s initial certification review of the plane was ‘‘grossly insufficient’’, and that the agency ‘‘failed in its duty’’ to both uncover critical safety problems and make sure Boeing fixed them.
‘‘The combination of these problems doomed the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines flights,’’ it said.
The FAA declined to comment on the findings, but said it was open to outside recommendations.
Boeing said in a statement that the company’s thoughts were with the crash victims’ families, and that report.
Wednesday will mark the anniversary of the second crash, which killed 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 when it plunged into the ground shortly after leaving Addis Ababa. The crash followed a similar one on October 29, 2018 in Indonesia.
The report concluded that the FAA didn’t do enough to sharpen it would review the its oversight following the first crash, and it wasn’t until after the second crash that agency officials joined international aviation regulators in grounding the Max.
It remains grounded, and the decision has rocked Boeing, leading to the ouster of its chief executive in December, and the halting of production of new Max jets earlier this year.
The report traces the origins of the crashes back years, to Boeing’s desire to compete with a new plane being developed by European manufacturer Airbus. This led to efforts to cut costs, follow a strict schedule and maintain high production numbers, even after a factory manager warned of problems on the shop floor, according to the report.
‘‘The desire to meet these goals and expectations jeopardised the safety of the flying public,’’ the report concludes.
The planes coming off the production line in Renton, Washington contained hidden flaws in a new feature called the manoeuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS), which was implicated in both crashes because of its power to drive the plane’s nose down in ways pilots struggled to counteract.
Boeing made poor assumptions about how the feature would work, which led to it receiving a less thorough safety review, according to the report.
In other instances, Boeing concealed ‘‘crucial information’’ from its customers, pilots and the FAA – including not telling pilots about the existence of MCAS.
The FAA did too little to scrutinise Boeing’s work, and operated under a safety system that the report found set up ‘‘inherent conflicts of interest’’. The system gives Boeing the power to name engineers who conduct safety work on behalf of the FAA.
A trio of Democratic senators introduced legislation last week that would make changes to the system, giving the FAA’s leaders new authority, but family members of the crash victims say they want it replaced.
‘‘[Boeing’s actions] jeopardised the safety of the flying public.’’