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Report: FAA review finds Boeing safety
employees lack expertise
- The FAA told Boeing several of its engineers had trouble understanding its aircraft certification processes and meeting its expectations.
The Federal Aviation Administration has leveled new criticisms at The
Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) over its choice of engineers to oversee its aircraft
certification, a Reuters report said.
In a letter to the company Wednesday, the agency told Boeing several of its
appointees had trouble understanding its certification processes and meeting its
expectations.
A Boeing spokesperson said in a statement to the Business Journal that it
is “committed to ensuring the highest levels of safety and quality in all that
we do, and that includes the important work of Boeing employees who are
designated as authorized representatives.”
The FAA will soon begin to take a more active role in the selection of
candidates under the Organization Designation Authorization, the program through
which it delegates some testing, inspection and certification functions to
manufacturers' employees. Beginning in January, under the new rules, the FAA
will be required to develop best practices and guidance on the technical
qualifications required for members of the ODA unit. It will also be tasked with
reviewing existing unit members and approving or rejecting new candidates Boeing
puts forward.
“We respect the FAA’s oversight role and look forward to strengthening the
ODA selection process and the program overall,” the Boeing spokesperson
said.
An inquiry by the agency is already underway into whether the company
exerts undue pressure on its ODA unit members, after surveys it conducted showed
a third of the engineers tasked with safety oversight felt pressured not to
report concerns to regulators.
The FAA itself faced questions from lawmakers in October about the speed
with which it has implemented the reforms passed in the wake of two deadly
crashes of the Renton-built Boeing 737 Max in 2018 and 2019. Administrator Steve
Dickson said he had "reset" the relationship with Boeing at the beginning of his
tenure in 2019 and has worked to root out "single points of failure" in
aerospace production.
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