Flyers Rights: FAA certification needs reform to prevent repeat of 737 MAX fiasco

Flyers Rights: FAA certification needs reform to prevent repeat of 737 MAX fiasco
Flyers Rights: FAA certification needs reform to prevent repeat of 737 MAX fiasco
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Written by Harry Johnson

Flyers Rights group today issued the following comments on proposed Senate Air Safety Bill:

The legislation introduced by Senator Wicker and Senator Cantwell is a step in the right direction. But as presently drafted the bill is inadequate to restore public confidence in aviation safety and would have been unlikely to have prevented the crashes of flight JT610 and flight ET302.

Without systemic change, history will not judge the tragedy of the Boeing 737 MAX merely as an aberration. New aircraft will be fatally flawed. The Boeing 737 MAX may still be fatally flawed.

If we continue to allow the FAA to lose both the technical expertise and authority over Boeing, it would be naive to believe we would see anything but a replay of the rushed, corrupt, short-sighted profit-seeking-over-safety mentality of the Boeing 737 MAX certification and production. And if US corporations continue to resort to unscrupulous means to maximize shareholder value and executive compensation, other nations like China and the EU whose plane manufacturers receive both government financial support and are under government control and/or ownership, the failures of the Boeing 737 MAX may not only be repeated but other nations will likely overtake US leadership and eliminate millions of jobs in the commercial aviation industry . Ten million dollars in research and training is microscopic in this context as provided in the current bill.

FlyersRights.org is the largest airline passenger organization representing the interests of the travelling public. We cannot support any legislation until the following measures are included:

 

  1. Removal of FAA delegation to Boeing over safety critical systems and new systems
  2. Implementation of the JATR recommendations
  3. Release of documents and data to the public and independent experts before ungrounding the 737 MAX.
  4. Enforce criminal and civil penalties for Boeing employees who lie, mislead, or conceal information from the FAA

 

We are seeing the devastating effects of aviation safety deregulation. Hundreds of lives have been tragically lost in avoidable air crashes, many thousands of private sector US jobs have been lost, the public no longer trusts the FAAโ€™s judgment and independence, and foreign aviation authorities will no longer defer to its findings.

FlyersRights.org calls on Congress to protect aviation safety. This will take fundamental change, including the changes recommended by the independent JATR.

 

Sincerely,

 

/s/ Paul Hudson

Paul Hudson

President, FlyersRights.org

Member, FAA Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee (1993-present)

1530 P St NW, Washington, DC 20005

4411 Bee Ridge Rd., #274, Sarasota, FL 34233

800-662-1859 ext. 0

 

June 30, 2020

#rebuildingtravel

About the author

Avatar of Harry Johnson

Harry Johnson

Harry Johnson has been the assignment editor for eTurboNews for mroe than 20 years. He lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is originally from Europe. He enjoys writing and covering the news.

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