Upcoming Congressional Decision Critical for Boeing

A report commissioned by the Federal Aviation Administration may influence a crucial, looming decision about Boeing's not-yet-certified-to-fly 737 MAX 10. 

The March 2022 report is highly critical of the FAA’s exemption of early, 737 MAX models from best-practice pilot-warning systems. 

The as of yet uncertified MAX 10's crew-alerting system has been upgraded but still falls short of complying with the current, best-practices safety regulations. 

The report from the MITRE Corp.—a  nonprofit spinoff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that conducts research for government agencies—states the FAA’s exemption from the best-practices crew-alerting standard contributed to two high-profile, 737 MAX accidents and influenced Boeing to suppress information about the now infamous, Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) to which the crashes are primarily attributed. 

The FAA has informed Boeing that the MAX 10's certification is unlikely to be completed in 2022. Congress therefore must decide whether to extend a 20 December deadline set down in 2020’s FAA reform legislation. Doing so would grant the MAX 10 the selfsame, short-sighted exemption granted to its predecessors.

The decision is a crucial one for Boeing.

Should Congress insist the MAX 10 crew alert systems be updated, Boeing would be obligated to either abandon the MAX 10 program—a drastic step that would negate years of development work and leave Boeing stuck with several hundred specimens already sold—or modify the 10’s cockpit system, making it different from earlier MAX models. 

Modifying the cockpit would cost Boeing untold millions of dollars, slow the MAX 10's entry into service, and possibly see the model designated a separate type-rating—all unattractive possibilities to airlines loathe to shell out monies for short-term aircraft leases and additional pilot training.

The FAA states it is reviewing the report, but declined to comment on the crew-alerting system it so inexplicably certified safe on earlier MAX models.

The agency instead indicated that the decision on the MAX crew-alerting system falls to Congress. The FAA invoked sophistry to defend its cop-out, noting that only Congress can change the deadline after which the MAX 10 would need to be upgraded.

"Our hands are tied by the wording of the law," an FAA spokesperson claimed.

The families of those killed in 737 MAX accidents could not be reached for comment.

FMI: www.boeing.com, www.faa.gov