{"id":356836,"date":"2024-06-14T08:53:31","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T12:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/?post_type=news&p=356836"},"modified":"2024-06-14T08:53:32","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T12:53:32","slug":"the-head-of-the-faa-says-his-agency-was-too-hands-off-in-its-oversight-of-boeing","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/news\/the-head-of-the-faa-says-his-agency-was-too-hands-off-in-its-oversight-of-boeing\/","title":{"rendered":"The head of the FAA says his agency was too hands-off in its oversight of Boeing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The top U.S. aviation regulator said Thursday that the Federal Aviation Administration should have been more aware of manufacturing problems inside Boeing<\/a> before a panel blew off a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFAA\u2019s approach was too hands-off \u2014 too focused on paperwork audits and not focused enough on inspections,\u201d FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker told a Senate committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitaker said that since the Jan. 5 blowout<\/a> on the Alaska jetliner, the FAA<\/a> has changed to \u201cmore active, comprehensive oversight\u201d of Boeing. That includes, as he has said before, putting more inspectors in factories at Boeing and its chief supplier on the Max, Spirit AeroSystems<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitaker made the comments while his agency<\/a>, the Justice Department<\/a> and the National Transportation Safety Board continue investigations into the giant aircraft manufacturer. The FAA has limited Boeing\u2019s production of 737 Max jets<\/a> to 38 per month, but the company is building far fewer than that while it tries to fix quality-control problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigators say the door plug that blew out of the Alaska jet was missing four bolts that helped secure it in place. The plug was removed and reinstalled at a Boeing factory, and the company told federal officials it had no records of who performed the work and forgot to replace the bolts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf Boeing is saying, \u2018We don\u2019t have the documentation, we don\u2019t know who removed it,\u2019 where was the (FAA) aviation safety inspector?\u201d Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., asked Whitaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe would not have had them on the ground at that point,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd why not?\u201d Cantwell responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause at that point the agency was focusing on auditing the internal quality programs at Boeing,\u201d Whitaker said. \u201cWe clearly did not have enough folks on the ground to see what was going on at that factory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitaker said the FAA is hiring more air traffic controllers and\u00a0safety inspectors<\/a>\u00a0but is competing with the aerospace industry for talent. He said the FAA has lost valuable experience in the ranks of its inspectors with its current, younger workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Associated Press report by\u00a0David Koenig<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The top U.S.\u00a0aviation\u00a0regulator said the Federal\u00a0Aviation\u00a0Administration should have been more aware of manufacturing problems inside\u00a0Boeing before a panel blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":354920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[99318,99315],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-356836","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oem","category-regulation","entry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/356836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}