Men who lost family in 737 crash seek safety changes

Two men who lost family in the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max jet called on legislators to change Federal Aviation Administration procedures that let company employees perform safety inspections on aircraft as they’re being built.

Paul Njoroge of Toronto, who lost three children, his wife and motherin-law in the March crash, accused Boeing of wrongful conduct during a hearing held Wednesday by the Aviation Subcommittee of the U.S. House Transportation Committee. He said the FAA’s process to approve new aircraft must be strengthened, and he accused Boeing of shifting blame from its faulty flight control software to the pilots in the Ethiopia crash and the October crash of a Lion Air 737 Max in Indonesia. A total of 346 people died in both crashes.

By blaming Lion Air pilots, Boeing delayed the grounding of the Max, he said. “That position killed my family and 152 others” on the Ethiopian jet, Njoroge said.

Michael Stumo, whose daughter Samya also died on the Ethiopian Airlines flight, told legislators that the committee should end the FAA’s policy of allowing designated aircraft manufacturer employees to do safety inspections of airplanes. He said the FAA should return to a system where the inspectors are paid by the FAA but report jointly to the agency and the company.

With that structure “the safety culture could put a stop to things if something looked wrong,” he said.