Lawmakers Scrutinize Timeline for Boeing 737 MAX Software Fix
March 26 2019 - 8:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Andy Pasztor and Andrew Tangel
WASHINGTON--Congressional investigators examining the Federal
Aviation Administration's safety certification of Boeing Co.'s 737
MAX aircraft also are questioning why it has taken months to
complete a safety fix initially described to pilots and airlines in
November.
With a Senate Commerce subcommittee slated to kick off Capitol
Hill hearings Wednesday about Boeing's grounded jet model,
lawmakers plan to examine the timeline that regulators and the
plane maker have relied on to develop and test software changes for
a suspect stall-prevention system.
"There's a lot of questions about how long the fix would take,"
said aviation and space subcommittee member Sen. Shelley Moore
Capito (R., W.Va.), adding that lawmakers will ask about training
and whether Boeing cut corners because of competitive pressure.
"I expect the hearing will be very thorough," said Sen. Ted Cruz
(R., Texas), the panel's chairman.
Among the issues lawmakers are expected to raise are whether
federal employee furloughs during the partial government shutdown
in December and January delayed completion of the fix, and whether
differences of opinion between the FAA and Boeing about the extent
of the software changes stretched out the schedule.
The automated feature, called MCAS, strongly pushes down an
aircraft's nose under certain conditions and has been implicated in
the fatal dive of a Lion Air jetliner in Indonesia last October.
The system also is suspected of playing a part in the crash of an
Ethiopian Airlines plane less than five months later.
On Monday, Boeing said its team "has worked tirelessly to
understand the preliminary information from the accidents to create
and test these software changes."
An FAA spokesman said the 35-day partial government shutdown
which began Dec. 22 didn't delay completion of the fix, but he
declined to elaborate on other factors affecting the schedule.
Boeing is in the process of rolling out wholesale software
enhancements intended to make MCAS less forceful, less prone to
misfire and more controllable by pilots. Final approval and
implementation of the changes, along with expanded training
requirements, are expected in coming weeks.
But before that, acting FAA chief Daniel Elwell is likely to be
grilled about why the fix wasn't distributed before the Ethiopian
crash on March 10.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), who is a member of the full
Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said: "I have no
clear idea as to why it has taken this long."
Mr. Blumenthal said "they clearly had information before the
second crash, from pilots as well as data probably from the crash
itself," adding that Mr. Elwell had told him in a briefing that the
government shutdown didn't delay the software fix.
During the partial government shutdown, most FAA employees
except for air-traffic controllers were told to stay off the job
after Dec. 22.
On Monday, an FAA spokesman released a statement saying that
about two weeks later--on Jan. 7--the agency "recalled the
necessary personnel to support the development and approval" of the
software fix.
In conjunction with Boeing, Trump administration officials
originally told airlines and pilot unions that the software
revisions were likely to be rolled out in early January. By
February, the anticipated deadline had shifted to late March or
April, according to people familiar with the process.
On Monday, a spokesman for subcommittee member Sen. Tom Udall
(D., N.M.) said the lawmaker is concerned about "the delay in
rolling out critical safety measures" and intends to raise
questions about the topic at the hearing.
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com and Andrew Tangel
at Andrew.Tangel@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 26, 2019 08:14 ET (12:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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