FAA chief tests changes to grounded 737 Max jet

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration made a test flight of Boeing’s revamped 737 Maxjetliner on Wednesday as his agency considers whether to allow the plane to return to flight after two deadly crashes five months apart.

FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson, a pilot who flew for the military and Delta Air Lines, sat in the captain’s seat during a two-hour flight. An FAA spokesman said Boeing pilots were also on the plane when it took off from the Seattle area.

The Max has been grounded since March 2019, after the second crash in Ethiopia. Both crashes, which left 346 people dead, have been blamed on an automated anti-stall system that pushed the noses of the planes down based on faulty readings from sensors. Boeing hopes to win FAA approval later this year for changes it has made to flight-control software and computers.

In Washington, the House Transportation Committee approved legislation to change the way the FAA certifies new planes, including the agency’s reliance on employees of Boeing and other aircraft makers to perform key safety analysis.

The bill would not eliminate the FAA’s use of private-sector employees to review their own companies’ planes — lawmakers believe it would be too expensive for FAA to do the work, and that the aerospace companies have more technical expertise. Instead, the bill would give FAA approval over picking private-sector employees who perform safety analysis and allow civil penalties for companies that interfere with their work. Boeing whistleblowers complained of pressure to approve systems on the Max.

The bill would also require plane manufacturers to tell the FAA, airlines and pilots about automated systems that can alter a plane’s path. Top FAA officials and most pilots did not know about the anti-stall system on the Max until after the first crash in October 2018 in Indonesia.