The Federal Aviation Administration says it will increase oversight of Boeing and audit production of the 737 Max 9 jetliner after a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines plane in midflight last week, the latest in a string of mishaps at the troubled aircraft maker.
The FAA said Friday that it would judge whether Boeing and its parts suppliers followed approved quality procedures.
Amid reports of continued manufacturing problems, the FAA also said it’s reconsidering a longstanding practice of relying on employees at aircraft manufacturers to perform some safety analysis of planes. Members of Congress criticized the practice of deputizing Boeing employees as inspectors after two deadly crashes involving Boeing 737 Max 8 planes in 2018 and 2019.
“It is time to re-examine the delegation of authority and assess any associated safety risks,” said new FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker. “The FAA is exploring the use of an independent third party to oversee Boeing’s inspections and its quality system.”
Whitaker suggested that the FAA might find “a technical, nonprofit organization” to help oversee Boeing’s work. The agency also said it will increase monitoring of problems reported on Max 9 flights.
He told CNBC Friday that the FAA will also step up its oversight of Spirit AeroSystems, which supplies Boeing with fuselages for the 737 Max.
“We know there are problems with manufacturing, there have been problems in the past, but these are continuing,” Whitaker said. “This is a brand-new aircraft, it has just come off the line and it had significant problems, and we believe there are other manufacturing problems.”
In a statement, Arlington, Virginia-based Boeing said it will cooperate with the FAA. “We support all actions that strengthen quality and safety, and we are taking actions across our production system,” the company said.
Spirit also said it’s supporting the FAA actions. “Spirit’s top priorities are quality, product integrity and compliance,” a company statement said.
The FAA’s intensifying focus on safety at Boeing comes just a day after the agency announced an investigation into whether the manufacturer failed to make sure a fuselage panel that blew off was safe and manufactured to meet the design that regulators approved.
The National Transportation Safety Board is focusing its investigation on plugs used to fill spots for extra doors when those exits are not required for safety reasons on Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners.
One of two door plugs on an Alaska Max 9 blew out shortly after the plane took off from Portland, Oregon, a week ago, leaving a hole in the plane. The cabin lost pressure and the plane was forced to descend rapidly and return to Portland for an emergency landing. No serious injuries were reported.
Whitaker said the FAA in the past used to do a lot more aircraft-manufacturing inspections, but legislation moved those to the private sector. Sometimes that works, but at times it doesn’t. The third party, he said, is just an option. “It may not be the right option, but I think we need to have that debate.”
Legislators criticized the designated inspector program after the Max crashes overseas, contending the inspectors were still paid by Boeing and beholden to the company, not the FAA.
But in 2019, then-acting FAA administrator Dan Elwell said replacing the use of company workers for safety-certification work would require the agency to add 10,000 employees at a cost of $1.8 billion a year. That all but ended consideration of FAA doing the work.
Criticism of the inspector program resumed Friday after the FAA’s actions were announced. “It should not have taken a near catastrophe for the FAA to review its use of the (designated inspector) program, which effectively lets the fox guard the hen house,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
Former congressman Peter DeFazio, who chaired the House committee that investigated the Max crashes, said Friday that the FAA’s actions are needed to rein in quality and safety problems at Boeing.
“This an extraordinary step by the administrator of the FAA, one that is long overdue,” he said. “The possibility that Boeing will lose the (deputization of its employees) and be subject to independent third party oversight — and I would expect that will have to be paid for by Boeing — that would be a massive, unprecedented step to force the unwilling executives at Boeing to shape up the company.”
DeFazio said that in the aftermath of the crashes, Congress changed the law so the inspectors would report to the FAA rather than Boeing supervisors, and that all future inspectors be approved by the agency. But given the Alaska Airlines case, it’s clear that failed as well, he said.
“So I think we’re looking at a whole new way of doing this with a totally independent entity — not people who work for Boeing — and handing Boeing the bill because of their malfeasance, would be warranted,” he said.
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