Canada’s trial flights of 737 Max will be a test for global regulatory regime
Canadian regulators are planning to test fly the revamped 737 Max this week in what will be a positive milestone for its manufacturer Boeing but a potentially ominous moment for the aerospace industry, after two fatal crashes of the jet shook the global regulatory regime.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration began critical recertification test flights in June, but Transport Canada said its pilots were travelling to Boeing’s airfield in Seattle, Wash., for the agency’s own regulatory flights.
The Transport Canada test flights are unusual, because modern aviation has rested on mutual agreement among nations to accept others regulators’ safety inspections as valid, a principle known as reciprocity. The policy saves time and money for aerospace manufacturers and governments by limiting the number of expensive test flights.
“Reciprocity meant reciprocity,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice-president of analysis at Teal Group. “Now it’s hanging by a thread.”
The 737 Max has been grounded worldwide since March 2019 following two crashes five months apart that killed 346 people, with the same anti-stall system implicated in both incidents. The FAA did not ground the plane after the first crash, and was the last of the main international regulators to do so after the second.
Transport Canada and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency have said since last year that they want to conduct their own tests.
Boeing has tried to co-ordinate with international regulators during the grounding, but the coronavirus pandemic has hampered the efforts of the Joint Authorities Technical Review, a body comprising civil aviation authorities from nine countries, plus the FAA and the U.S. space agency NASA.
The FAA required Boeing to fix software that erroneously triggered anti-stall procedures on the doomed flights, and is also requiring the manufacturer to amend pilot training programs.
Transport Canada said in June that it was considering whether Boeing needed to also change the Max’s flight manual to include instructions on how to disable a “stick shaker” warning system when it is wrongly activated. In both Max crashes, the airplane’s control column began to vibrate, incorrectly signalling that the plane was about to stall, and adding to commotion in the cockpit as pilots tried to regain control.
“Transport Canada remains committed to ensuring that the flight restrictions in Canada are in place until fully satisfied that all safety concerns have been addressed by the manufacturer and the FAA and that enhanced flight crew procedures and training are in place,” the agency said.
European regulators have indicated they have further demands for the anti-stall system, including a fix to ensure that a single faulty sensor cannot automatically tip the plane’s nose downward. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is yet to schedule its test flights.
Boeing CEO David Calhoun said last month that the Max would return to service in the fourth quarter.
Though EASA has indicated it would not hold up the plane’s recertification, the European agency “is probably a greater concern” than Canada as a threat to the reciprocity regime since there are already trade tensions over aircraft manufacturing between the two sides, Aboulafia at Teal Group said.
“It’s not just things get harder for America and Boeing. Things get harder for everybody if reciprocity breaks down,” he said, although he added that he was “cautiously optimistic” the principle would survive since industry players understand its importance.