Time expiring for aircraft oversight bills driven by 737 Max
December 23, 2020
House and Senate measures aimed at shoring up the Federal Aviation Administration’s safety culture in response to two Boeing 737 Max crashes are caught in a squeeze, with Congress running out of time to approve a final measure before it adjourns for the year.
The bills, though different, have similar themes: Both call for the FAA to tighten its oversight of the aircraft certification process, including stricter scrutiny of an FAA process that allows manufacturers to approve parts of their new aircraft.
Both bills call for research into how humans interact with increasingly complex technology. And both include measures to crack down on coziness between federal regulators and airplane manufacturers that watchdogs say contributed to the 2018 crash of Lion Air Flight 610 and the 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which killed 346 people combined.
While the bills were not identical, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the ranking Democrat on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said she believed there was very little to resolve.
Read More: https://www.rollcall.com/2020/12/15/time-expiring-for-aircraft-oversight-bills-driven-by-737-max/