Boeing 737 Max: regulators to agree on design fixes for troubled airliner
International air safety regulators are likely to agree on the design fixes needed to return the Boeing 737 Max aircraft to service after two deadly crashed, the administrator of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Steve Dickson said on Thursday.
Dickson declined to put a timeframe on the plane’s return to service but said that the Max could take a certification flight in the next few weeks.
The 737 Max was grounded in March 2019 after two fatal crashes that killed 346 people. Passengers and pilots remain worried about the Max and the grounding of Boeing’s best selling airplane has had a negative impact on the US economy.
Speaking at an airline industry event in London, Dickson said that international regulators including European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) broadly agreed on what needed to be fixed.
“On the design approval, from everything that I have seen I think we’ll have very solid alignment,” he said. “There is no timeframe, I don’t think it’s helpful to get out there with timeframes or timelines,” he told reporters at a briefing.
“For Boeing’s part, what I have been encouraging is to not make public announcements.”
Boeing told investors recently that it expects the aircraft will not be back in the air until mid-2020 and that regulators will determine the timing.
Initial investigations into the Max found issues with anti-stall software, known as Mcas, has contributed to the fatal crashes of a Lion Air flight in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines the following March.
But in January the FAA and Boeing they were also reviewing a wiring issue that could potentially cause a short circuit on the grounded 737 Max.
Officials said the review was looking at whether two bundles of wiring are too close together, which could lead to a short circuit and potentially result in a crash if pilots did not respond appropriately.
“They have not given us a proposal on the wiring yet,” Dickson said.
“I wouldn’t say I’m worried. I want them to take whatever time they need to give us a fulsome and a data-driven proposal.”
Reuters contributed to this story
