Regulator Found Boeing Risk After Lion Air Crash, Dow Jones Says

(Bloomberg) -- Internal analysis by the Federal Aviation Administration following the first deadly Boeing 737 Max crash in Indonesia found that the likelihood of a similar cockpit emergency was high, Dow Jones reported, citing an unidentified FAA official.

The regulator deemed it sufficient to inform pilots about the dangers of an onboard malfunction that led to a flight-control system called MCAS pushing down the plane’s nose, according to the report Wednesday. Boeing Co. would then be given time to sort out a permanent fix, it said.

The report casts negative light on the FAA’s role in the subsequent Ethiopian Airlines crash in Addis Ababa just five months later, which took the combined death toll from the pair of accidents to 346. The Max was subsequently grounded by regulators around the world, and no date has yet been set for the jet to resume passenger flights.

Boeing said the planemaker and the FAA had agreed at the time that reinforcing pilot procedures while working on a software update was the appropriate action, according to Dow Jones.

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To contact the reporter on this story: John Bowker in Johannesburg at jbowker2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Tara Patel

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