Boeing coached pilots on 737 Max tests, Senate finds

A Federal Aviation Administration test to gather data on returning the Boeing Co. 737 Max to service was improperly inf luenced by the company, according to a U. S. Senate investigative report released Friday.

The 101- page report, based on a whistleblower account, alleged that the FAA and Boeing officials were attempting to create “a pre- determined outcome” by essentially coaching pilots before testing their reaction time to a failure similar to what occurred in a pair of crashes involving the Max.

“It appears, in this instance, FAA and Boeing were attempting to cover up important information that may have contributed to the 737 Max tragedies,” the report said.

The FAA last month approved the jetliner’s return to f light, following a global grounding that began in March 2019. Boeing redesigned key f light- control software after the crashes, one off the coast of Indonesia in 2018 and the other in Ethiopia in 2019, that killed a total of 346 people.

“Our f indings are troubling,” Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, said in a statement. “The report details a number of significant examples of lapses in aviation safety oversight and failed leadership in the FAA.

It is clear that the agency requires consistent oversight to ensure their work to protect the f lying public is executed fully and correctly.”

It’s unclear how much inf luence the test had on the subsequent FAA certification of the Max. Scores of test pilots and crew members from airlines around the world f lew simulations of the plane’s revised systems this year before they were approved.

The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The agency since the crashes has revamped how it reviews pilot reactions to failures, calculating they will take longer to make corrections than what was previously assumed.

In a statement, Boeing said it is “committed to improving aviation safety” and would “take seriously the committee’s f indings and will continue to review the report in full.”

“We have learned many hard lessons from the Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Flight 302 accidents, and we will never forget the lives lost on board,” the company said. “The events and lessons learned have reshaped our company and further focused our attention on our core values of safety, quality, and integrity.”

The report also alleges the FAA “continues to retaliate against whistleblowers instead of welcoming their disclosures in the interest of safety.”