Key Lawmaker Pledges Reform of FAA in Wake of 737 Max Disasters

(Bloomberg) -- A top lawmaker is calling for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to reclaim some of the oversight authority that has been ceded to manufacturers such as Boeing Co.

Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee investigating a pair of Boeing Co. 737 Max crashes, told reporters in a briefing Monday that the FAA may need to hire more workers as part of a reform of the way the agency certifies new planes.

DeFazio is also targeting changes in how older aircraft models like the 737 are certified by FAA because the process of updating an older plane allows less scrutiny than designing a plane from scratch. Such wholesale changes in how planes are approved could have enormous implications on Boeing and other planemakers.

Speaking in advance of his committee’s hearing on the crashes Wednesday, DeFazio was deeply critical of Boeing and the FAA for how the plane was approved.

“I think that perhaps some complacency set in on both sides, on the manufacturer’s side and on the regulator side, and I think this instance raises a question of whether there was adequate arms length and knowledgeable oversight of the manufacturing of this airplane by the FAA, and I think the answer to that is no,” DeFazio said.

Earlier this month, a panel of global aviation regulators found that the FAA delegated safety-critical elements of the 737 Max to Boeing under a program that permitted the company to designate employees to perform some oversight work. The review also found evidence that Boeing exerted “undue pressures” on those employees. Boeing has said it is reviewing the panel’s recommendations and will work with the FAA to improve the aircraft certification process.

Boeing President Dennis Muilenburg is scheduled to testify before committees overseeing aviation, beginning with the Senate Tuesday, one year from the date when a Lion Air 737 Max plunged into the Java Sea, killing all 189 people on board. It will be the first time Muilenburg takes questions from lawmakers since the crash and a subsequent one by an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max that led to the worldwide grounding of the company’s top-selling and most profitable passenger jet.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ryan Beene in Washington at rbeene@bloomberg.net;Alan Levin in Washington at alevin24@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman

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