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Comprehensive aviation security measures that would require aircraft manufacturers like Boeing Co. to enact new security policies, protect employees from company pressure, and tighten government enforcement are included in the legislation Congress is putting into effect. about to approve.
The Federal Aviation Administration reform bill, the most important aviation security legislation of the last decade, was a last-minute addition on Monday to the massive year-end legislation and is expected to pass soon. . It is designed to address faults discovered after two fatal 737 Max aircraft crashes.
It would require all aircraft manufacturers to add robust internal safety systems, require an external review of the organization within Boeing that uses its own employees to review designs, and direct the FAA to more closely monitor manufacturers’ processes, according to a summary provided by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
“Our bipartisan agreement is the result of nearly two years of intense investigation by my committee, multiple public hearings on both sides of the Capitol, and countless conversations with the families of the victims and the aviation community,” said Representative Pete DeFazio of Oregon. . the Democratic chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
The legislation adds protections against whistleblower retaliation, creates a whistleblower ombudsman for the FAA, and protects aviation manufacturers’ employees if they have safety concerns.
In an unusual move, the bill also directs the FAA to take possible enforcement action against Boeing. The “FAA should hold Boeing responsible for any breaches of the terms of its 2015 resolution agreement with the FAA,” read a summary of the bill.
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After multiple security breaches unrelated to the Max, Boeing agreed to pay $ 12 million and make internal improvements, but recent investigations have uncovered other potential violations that could trigger additional penalties.
Multiple investigations have found that Boeing employees themselves approved the final design of the system that went haywire in two crashes that killed 346 people without fully explaining to regulators how it had changed. The system repeatedly plunged the planes as a result of a malfunction and the pilots in both cases lost control and crashed to the ground.
While the legislation falls short of the practice of allowing manufacturers to use their own employees to assess the safety of designs, as some relatives of the victims have sought, it reverses a decades-long process of expansion of such programs.
Another provision would add $ 27 million a year to help the FAA recruit experts on the kinds of problems highlighted by accidents, such as how pilots interact with complex faults and software design. It also requires the agency to strengthen the reporting of anonymous complaints and improve employee training.
It also contains requirements to ensure that the FAA requires new aircraft to have better safety alert systems. All newly designed airliners have such systems, but updates to the 737, which first launched in the 1960s, do not.
The House passed a version of the bill earlier this year. The Senate was considering a similar package, but has not approved it.
Max’s accidents occurred off the coast of Indonesia in 2018 and shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa in 2019. They resulted in a global ground connection that is only now being lifted after the FAA and other regulators around the world required multiple changes to the plane.
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