High Stakes and Short Time

In a high-level letter, the FAA has warned Boeing that documents the plane-maker provided for certification of its 737 MAX-7 model are woefully inadequate. The agency further advised the Chicago-based aerospace titan that certification of the MAX-7 is unlikely to be completed by a Congressionally-specified year-end deadline.

However, Senator Roger Wicker (Republican, Mississippi) has filed an amendment in hopes of extending the deadline, thereby affording Boeing time and leeway to complete the requisite safety assessment documentation. The Senator has reportedly contacted the FAA for purpose of ascertaining an estimate of just how much additional time Boeing might require to get its paperwork in order.

A Boeing spokesperson said of the matter: "Our team continues to work transparently with the FAA to provide the information needed to certify the 737-7 and 737-10. At the same time, we are discussing with policymakers the time needed to complete these certifications, following established processes."

Boeing’s 737 MAX-8 and MAX-9 models are gaining traction with global airlines. Renewed public and air-carrier confidence in the MAX marque has occasioned brisk sales and increased use of the narrow-body jets. The 737 MAX-7 and MAX-10 models, however, have yet to receive FAA certification, and stand to require extensive redesign and retrofitting if subject certification isn’t forthcoming.

Boeing president and CEO Dave Calhoun has gone so far as to threaten to axe the MAX-10 project entirely in the event Congress fails to grant the requested waiver and permit the model's certification process to be extended into 2023. However, recent orders from Delta and WestJet for upward of 160 737 MAX-10 aircraft speak to the evanescence of Calhoun’s threats.

The deadline against which Boeing finds itself backed is a stipulation of 2020’s Aircraft Certification, Safety and Accountability Act, which Congress drafted and passed in the wake of two highly-publicized 737 MAX accidents in which 346 lives were lost. In addition to reforming the processes by which the FAA oversees the certification of new transport category aircraft, the legislation established more stringent design standards for future commercial airplanes. Congress tempered the measure by allowing a two-year grace period for compliance—during which lawmakers presumed Boeing would achieve certification of all MAX aircraft.

The law requires aircraft certified after 31 December 2022 to comply with revised FAA safety regulations mandating improvements to pilot-alerting systems. The 737 family is the only series of Boeing jet that fails to meet the amended safety standard.

Pressed by European and Canadian aviation regulators, Boeing has supplemented the MAX-10’s crew alerting system, but not to the extent of compliance with the FAA’s fortified standards.

The FAA’s 19 September letter to Boeing was sent by Lirio Liu, executive director of aviation safety at the FAA’s Aircraft Certification Service, and to the attention of Mike Fleming, Boeing senior vice president in charge of the 737 MAX return to service. Ms. Liu reminded Fleming that the FAA had advised Boeing that meeting the December 2022 certification target was contingent upon the air-framer submitting all remaining MAX-7 System Safety Assessment (SSA) documentation to the agency by mid-September.

Liu wrote: “As of September 15, just under ten-percent of the SSAs have been accepted by the FAA and another seventy-percent of these documents are in various stages of review and revision. Most concerning, however, is that Boeing has yet to provide an initial submittal for six of the outstanding SSAs.” Liu continued: “Many of these documents will take significant time to review due to their complexity and bearing on the overall safety of the new aircraft. I look forward to continuing our discussions about realistic time frames for receiving the remaining documents.”

Whether or not Congress grants Boeing the extension for which Senator Wicker has petitioned remains to be seen. Senator Maria Cantwell (Democrat, Washington), chair of the commerce committee, has stated she’s inclined to follow whatever course of action the FAA deems safest: either to demand the redesign of the MAX cockpit systems or to maintain commonality with the 737 Next Generation series of aircraft. Conversely, U.S. House Representative Peter DeFazio (Democrat, Oregon), of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, opposes granting Boeing any extension—as do the families of the 346 victims of the two 2019 accidents to which the design shortcomings of the 737 MAX’s attitude-sensing and crew-alerting systems were salient.

In any case, stakes are high for Boeing and the twelve-thousand Renton Plant workers who build the 737 in all its variants.

FMI: www.boeing.com