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The recertification of the redesigned Boeing 737 Max aircraft, soon to fly again from the United States after two tragedies in the past three years, was marred by “failures in aviation security oversight,” warns a Senate committee report. American.
The plane, which is now back in service in Brazil, recently received approval to resume domestic flights in the United States at the end of December, following software updates and additional pilot training.
The blame for those tragedies was an automated flight control system, called MCAS, which sent both planes on fatal nose-down dives in Indonesia and Ethiopia, killing 346 occupants.
Releasing his panel report on Friday, the chairman of the US Senate Commerce Committee, Republican Roger Wicker, blamed the US aviation regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration and the manufacturer. aircraft due to failures during the recertification process.
Wicker said the report details “a number of significant examples of lapses in aviation safety oversight and failed leadership at the FAA” in its review of the safety of the 737 Max aircraft.
The FAA had continued to retaliate against whistleblowers and, during the post-crash recertification, Boeing officials present had “inappropriately” influenced the test pilots, the Senate panel found.
However, the FAA said the report “contains a number of unsubstantiated allegations” and defended its review of the Max, calling it thorough and deliberate.
‘Default result’
The Wicker panel report also accuses the FAA and Boeing officials of setting a “predetermined result to reaffirm a human factor assumption related to pilot reaction time.”
Corroborated, the committee said, had been the account of a whistleblower who claimed that Boeing officials encourage test pilots to “remember, get right on that switch” before a nose-down exercise that resulted in reaction times. approximately four seconds, and otherwise 16 seconds.
The reaction of three flight crews in the simulator tests, as Boeing representatives watched, was even slower than the aircraft manufacturer expected, according to the report.
Each time, the plane would have thrown itself into a nose-down pitch, although recovery would still have been possible, the researchers said.
Legislation is pending to make changes to the FAA’s certification process for new aircraft, introduced by President Wicker and the panel’s top Democrat, Maria Cantwell.
“It is clear that [FAA] The agency requires constant oversight to ensure that its work to protect the flying public is fully and correctly executed, “the panel concluded.
In its response to the report, Boeing said it took the committee’s findings “seriously and will continue to review the report in its entirety.”
ipj / mm (AP, Reuters, AFP)
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