MAX - Oppdatering - Interjnasjonal gruppe skal vurdere prosessen - Curt Lewis

International Panel Set to Criticize FAA's Approval Process for Boeing 737 MAX Jets Panel's recommendations could set the stage for major changes to longstanding jet-certification rules Boeing 737 MAX planes have been grounded world-wide since March. PHOTO: DAVID RYDER/GETTY IMAGES By Andy Pasztor and Andrew Tangel A panel of international air-safety regulators is finishing a report expected to criticize the initial U.S. approval process for Boeing Co. BA -0.24% 's 737 MAX jets, according to people briefed on the conclusions, while urging a wide-ranging reassessment of how complex automated systems should be certified on future airliners. As part of roughly a dozen findings, these government and industry officials said, the task force is poised to call out the Federal Aviation Administration for what it describes as a lack of clarity and transparency in the way the FAA delegated authority to the plane maker to assess the safety of certain flight-control features. The upshot, according to some of these people, is that essential design changes didn't receive adequate FAA attention. The report, these officials said, also is expected to fault the agency for what it describes as inadequate data sharing with foreign authorities during its original certification of the MAX two years ago, along with relying on mistaken industrywide assumptions about how average pilots would react to certain flight-control emergencies. FAA officials have said they are devising new pilot-reaction guidelines after two fatal crashes. Expected to be released in the next few weeks, the document would be the first official outside review of MAX certification since the fleet was grounded world-wide in March after the crashes. The planes nosedived after repeated misfires of an automated flight-control system, called MCAS, which pushed down the noses of both aircraft despite efforts by their pilots to pull the planes out of their steep dives. The multiagency panel, created by the FAA in April and called the Joint Authorities Technical Review, is headed by Christopher Hart, former chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. Tasked with examining procedures used to approve MAX flight-control systems, the participants also were asked for high-level recommendations to address systemic deficiencies. Members include air-safety regulators from Canada, China, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union, Brazil and the U.S. The origin and makeup of the task force likely will give heft to its specific findings and recommendations for overhauling current practices and, in some cases, re-evaluating and updating decades-old safety rules and technical standards. Boeing and regulators are seeking to restore public confidence in the planes and end the grounding that has roiled the industry and disrupted global airline schedules. "We welcome the scrutiny of these experts," an FAA spokesman said Sunday in reference to the JATR and a number of other outside reviews examining MAX certification. The agency "will carefully review all the findings and recommendations," he added. A Boeing spokesman said the company looks forward to the finished report and "is determined to keep improving on safety in partnership with the global aerospace industry," adding that the plane maker continues to cooperate with regulators to return the planes to service. Details of the nearly finished report haven't been reported before. Final changes could modify some conclusions, according to some of the officials, but the overall thrust and recommendations for a sweeping reassessment aren't likely to shift. Initially, the panel was assembled by the FAA as part of a strategy to promote international consensus. But as Boeing's work to devise software fixes for MCAS and related systems dragged on-and disagreements between the FAA and some of its foreign counterparts burst into public view-the report has morphed. Now, it appears to have turned into more of a damage-control effort partly intended to sketch out longer-range changes in certification standards and procedures, industry officials said. The JATR document won't analyze the accidents or proposed fixes to MCAS or changes to MAX flight-control computers. The FAA has stressed that the advisory group doesn't have veto power over modifications to MCAS. But the report could influence changes to traditional engineering principles determining the safety of new aircraft models. Certification of software controlling increasingly interconnected and automated onboard systems "is a whole new ballgame requiring new approaches," according to a senior industry safety expert who has discussed the report with regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. Government approval of such systems requires not only vetting the reliability of essential software, but ensuring that average pilots can react promptly and appropriately to handle emergencies stemming from mechanical or computer malfunctions. The panel, according to one of the officials, is expected to call for greater data-sharing and transparency among different governments, especially in certifying the safety of aircraft such as the MAX, whose basic designs are derived from earlier models. In addition, the official said, the draft report recommends reviewing and updating FAA guidance and day-to-day certification procedures to ensure early and significant FAA involvement in new onboard systems, particularly with respect to pilot response times during emergencies that stem from human-computer interactions. Some of the draft recommendations already have been factored into Boeing's pending fixes to the grounded MAX fleet, the official said. The anticipated focus on potentially sweeping certification changes comes amid growing signs that shorter-term plans by Boeing and the FAA to choreograph a nearly simultaneous return of MAX jets in many parts of the world are fraying. Technical differences have spawned broader political and diplomatic clashes. The FAA has spent months trying to ensure that MAX jets, once they are cleared to carry passengers again, will be phased in at roughly the same time across North America, Europe and other regions. Instead, various foreign authorities are setting their own testing protocols and timelines. European regulators recently told their FAA counterparts they likely won't be ready to formally lift the grounding by early November, which remains the FAA's informal target. The U.A.E. indicated over the weekend that it planned to follow its own, longer timetable. China and India, two fast-growing aviation markets, also are expected to take longer than the U.S. Canadian regulators, for their part, are signaling to the FAA they are likely to require simulator training for pilots before putting the MAX fleet registered in that country back in the air, according to one of the people briefed on the issue. That will require more time than the process the FAA is expected to mandate for U.S. aviators. A spokeswoman for Transport Canada had no comment. The rift between the FAA and its foreign counterparts highlights the erosion of the U.S. agency's stature. For decades, the FAA has set the benchmark for aviation safety. It led the way with voluntary reporting of safety lapses, ways to analyze such data and concepts to tailor pilot training to real-world incidents and accidents. But now, countries that relied on the FAA's help to emulate such advances are balking at accepting U.S. verifications regarding the MAX. Patrick Ky, head of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, told the European Parliament earlier this month, "It's very likely that international authorities will want a second opinion" on any FAA decision to lift the grounding. Even after EASA gives the green light, agency officials are expected to push for significant additional safety enhancements to the fleet. Most prominently, EASA has proposed to eventually add to the MAX a third fully functional angle-of-attack sensor-which effectively measures how far the plane's nose is pointed up or down-underscoring the controversy expected to swirl around the plane for the foreseeable future.

FAA chief to meet with Boeing officials, test 737 MAX simulator WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Stephen Dickson plans to fly to Seattle this week to fly "newly configured" Boeing 737 MAX software in a simulator and will visit with Boeing officials, the agency said Monday. Boeing plans to revise the 737 MAX software to take input from both angle-of-attack sensors in the MCAS anti-stall system linked to two deadly crashes that led to a global grounding of the plane in March. But it is not clear when it will conduct a key certification test flight, a step needed before the FAA can return the plane to service. The FAA confirmed that Dickson, who took over as administrator in mid-August, has no firm timeline for the grounded 737 MAX to resume flights or when Boeing will turn over final documentation. The FAA said Dickson also plans to visit with the FAA aircraft certification team in Seattle. Separately, a spokeswoman for Representative Peter DeFazio, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, confirmed that Boeing had declined his invitation to testify at an upcoming House hearing. "Boeing is working diligently and transparently with committees in both the House (of Representatives) and the Senate to ensure that proper information is being shared and we will continue to do so," the company said in an e-mailed statement. Boeing's board is expected to consider changes proposed by a board committee later this week, people briefed on the matter said. Reuters reported in August that the committee review would find the company needs to reorganize its engineering reporting lines company-wide and ensure higher ranking officials, including its CEO, get faster feedback about potential safety concerns from lower levels of the company. The changes are intended to boost the transparency of engineering decisions and accelerate efforts to share safety information as widely and swiftly as possible across Boeing's global businesses and factories, Reuters reported. Boeing has said it plans to conduct a certification test flight in the "September time frame" but Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg did not give a specific date when asked last week. Federal prosecutors aided by the FBI, the Department of Transportation's inspector general and several blue-ribbon panels are investigating the 737 MAX as well as how the FAA certifies new aircraft. Major U.S. airlines have canceled flights into December as a result of the MAX grounding, including American Airlines Group Inc and United Airlines , while Southwest Airlines Co has canceled flights into early January.