Boeing Max’s return to the air dogged by delays

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) invited feedback from global regulators at a Boeing 737 Max briefing on Monday about the steps needed to return the grounded passenger jet to flight after two fatal crashes.

The closed-door meeting, on the eve of a UN aviation assembly in Montreal, brought together representatives from more than 50 countries with airlines that fly the Max and those that will have incoming flights of the aircraft.

Airlines have urged regulators to co-ordinate with one another to avoid damaging splits over safety as they evaluate changes undertaken by Boeing to return the Max to flight. Some countries have vowed to run their own validation studies before restoring flights.

FAA administrator Steve Dickson told the regulators in Montreal that all countries must “foster improvements in standards and approaches for not just in how aircraft are designed and produced, but how they are maintained and operated”.

Boeing’s best-selling jet was grounded globally in March, days after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight that followed a similar Lion Air disaster in Indonesia in October. The two crashes took 346 lives.

Boeing has spent months working to update flight control software at the centre of both crashes, in hopes of winning FAA approval for the aircraft to fly again in the US between October and December.

The EU Aviation Safety Agency, which is examining the 737 Max design, said recently there was still no appropriate response to issues with the integrity of the aircraft’s angle of attack system. In both crashes, erroneous data triggered the activation of an automated system that repeatedly pushed down the aircraft’s nose.

Paul Njoroge — who lost his wife, three children and motherin-law in the Ethiopian crash — and Chris Moore, who lost his daughter, held pictures of victims outside the meeting.

The FAA has said it wants input from the EU agency and international regulators from Canada and Brazil before it conducts a certification test flight, a key step before final approval.

At the meeting, the FAA’s top aviation safety official provided details on activities to certify the aircraft since the regulators met in Texas in May. A senior Boeing executive provided a technical briefing on efforts to address safety regulators’ concerns.

The jet is not on the agenda of the assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, which sets global standards for 193 member countries. The meeting runs to October 4.

But the US, Canada, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago jointly presented a paper urging the UN aviation arm to study how to improve minimum pilot training standards in what would be the first broad review of training requirements.