(New York) The new head of the American Civil Aviation Regulatory Agency (FAA), Mike Whitaker, considered it necessary on Tuesday to strengthen supervision of Boeing after the January 5 incident during the flight of a 737 MAX 9.
“There have been problems (with Boeing) in the past and it appears that they have not been resolved,” the new FAA administrator, who took office in October, said during a hearing before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Aviation.
“So we feel like we need to raise the level of supervision to deal with this,” he continued.
A good part of the hearing was devoted to the incident that occurred at the beginning of January on an aircraft of the American company Alaska Airlines, in which a door came off in mid-flight.
This door was used to block an exit and was not intended to be opened, this model already having enough emergency exits in this configuration.
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has not yet released its findings on the causes of the incident, but Alaska reported “loose equipment” after preliminary inspections.
Owner of the largest fleet of 737 MAX 9s (79 aircraft), United Airlines said it discovered, during checks, “bolts that needed to be tightened”.
In recent months, Boeing has experienced other episodes of failure and in particular had to slow down its deliveries because of problems on the fuselage, in particular on the rear bulkhead of the aircraft.
“Recent events, in particular the incident of January 5 […] show that we cannot relax,” insisted Mike Whitaker.
The official indicated that the FAA had dispatched around twenty inspectors to Boeing, currently hard at work to verify the assembly conditions of the group’s aircraft.
The regulator also sent around ten of its controllers to the aircraft manufacturer’s main subcontractor, Spirit AeroSystems.
This approach, Mr. Whitaker clarified, breaks with the methods traditionally used by the agency, which were essentially based on the study of documents transmitted by Boeing.
The FAA has commissioned a six-week audit from a specialized firm, which is currently being carried out, the conclusions of which will be used to define a new sustainable supervision method.
“We haven’t made a decision yet, but I expect we will keep people on site,” the FAA boss said.