FAA chief: Boeing oversight “too cautious” before 737 MAX 9 incident

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Thursday that his agency had been “too cautious” in overseeing Boeing before the January mid-air emergency involving a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 while conducting several investigations into the aircraft maker.

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker’s comments at a hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee mark the first time the U.S. aviation authority has admitted inadequate oversight in connection with the Jan. 5 incident in which a door panel flew out during a flight.

“The FAA should have had much better insight into what was going on at Boeing before January 5,” Whitaker said.

He said the agency has permanently increased the use of in-person inspectors and he will visit a Boeing factory in South Carolina on Friday.

The FAA’s approach before the mid-air incident was “too cautious, too focused on reviewing records and not enough on inspections,” Whitaker added.

“We will use our full enforcement powers to ensure Boeing is held accountable for any non-compliance. We currently have several ongoing investigations into Boeing and are processing a number of whistleblower reports.”

Whitaker had barred Boeing from increasing production of its best-selling plane in February. Last month, he said he did not expect Boeing to receive approval to increase production of the MAX “in the next few months.”

Whitaker also said the agency will continue its increased on-site presence at Boeing and its supplier Spirit AeroSystems “for the foreseeable future.”

He added that there needs to be a “fundamental change” in Boeing’s safety culture.

“We’ve been working too much in reactive mode, waiting for an event to happen and analyzing it to figure out what we can do differently. So now we’re moving to a much more proactive approach. On the manufacturing side, we’ll deploy inspectors and develop clear indices to monitor performance,” Whitaker said.

Whitaker said the FAA is conducting “additional inspections at critical points in the production process.”

On May 30, Boeing submitted a comprehensive quality improvement plan to the FAA after Whitaker gave Boeing 90 days in late February to develop a comprehensive plan to correct “systemic quality control issues.”

The National Transportation Safety Board had previously said that four critical screws were missing from the door panel that was torn off a Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet during flight and that there was no documentation for the removal of those screws. Whitaker confirmed that no documentation was available.

The Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into the MAX-9 incident.