“Going forward, we will have more boots on the ground closely scrutinizing and monitoring production and manufacturing activities,” FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker will say, according to testimony prepared for Tuesday’s hearing before the House subcommittee on aviation. “Boeing employees are encouraged to use our FAA hotline to report any safety concerns.”
Even so, Whitaker likely will face tough questions about its oversight of the airplane manufacturer. His agency had already pledged to increase scrutiny of Boeing five years ago after two fatal crashes that involved Boeing Max jets. In a letter to Whitaker last week, lawmakers asked about the status of reforms that followed the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people.
“I look forward to updates on what the FAA has learned so far in its ongoing reviews following the Boeing 737 Max 9 issues and Alaska Airlines flight 1282 incident, in addition to the administrator’s thoughts on the bipartisan House FAA reauthorization bill that’s been held up in the Senate for more than six months,” Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said Monday. “I want to hear directly from the administrator about how that long-overdue bill will help the FAA carry out its many critical missions and improve aviation safety.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is preparing to release its preliminary report into the Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines incident, which forced an emergency landing at Portland International Airport. The report may offer some early clues about why a portion of the jet known as a door plug blew out, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the aircraft.
The high-profile failure is Boeing’s worst public relations crisis in years and has angered many of the company’s best customers. It has also called into question whether the aerospace giant has lived up to its promises to remake its corporate culture and improve the quality of the aircraft it produces. Boeing chief executive David Calhoun met individually with more than a half-dozen lawmakers last month.
Amid stepped-up scrutiny of its operations, the company announced over the weekend that it identified additional production issues involving some of its 737 Max jets.
In a memo to employees Sunday, Stan Deal, head of the company’s commercial airplanes division, wrote that misdrilled holes were found in the fuselages of about 50 jets. While the issue does not present any immediate safety issues and does not affect aircraft currently in operation, the company will correct the problem, Deal wrote.
The planemaker was notified of the misdrilled holes by an employee at Spirit AeroSystems, the Wichita-based company that makes the fuselages. That prompted broader inspections at Boeing, according to statements from both companies.
“In close coordination with Boeing, Spirit will continue delivering fuselages that incorporate additional inspections and known repairs and meet the agreed-upon assembly condition,” said Joe Buccino, a spokesman for Spirit AeroSystems.
Experts praised the FAA in the wake of the Alaska Airlines incident last month after the agency quickly grounded more than 100 737 Max 9 planes, ordering additional inspections. The planes resumed service weeks after the incident. The FAA also launched its own in-depth examinations of Boeing’s manufacturing and quality oversight practices and has taken the unprecedented step of prohibiting the company from increasing the number of 737 Max jets it produces each month, until the agency completes its work. During a briefing with reporters on Monday, Jodi Baker, FAA’s deputy associate administrator for aviation safety, said the agency expects to take about six weeks to gather the necessary data.
“Let me stress: We will follow the data and take appropriate and necessary action,” Whitaker said in his written testimony. “The safety of the flying public will continue to inform our decision-making.”
During a Jan. 31 earnings call, Boeing’s Calhoun said that whatever conclusions are reached about the Alaska Airlines accident, “Boeing is accountable for what happened.”
