Boeing is once again allowed to certify 737 Max and 787 Dreamliners as safe to fly on behalf of the FAA
By Aaron Cooper, CNN
(CNN) — For years, following significant and continuous quality and safety errors, Boeing has been barred from certifying the safety of some of its own aircraft on behalf of the US government. Following 18 months of intense oversight and scrutiny from US regulators, the Federal Aviation Administration is restoring Boeing’s safety certification ability for some of the 737 Max and 787 Dreamliners it manufactures.
Manufacturers are typically delegated permission to perform some functions on behalf of the FAA, such as issuing airworthiness and production certifications, but Boeing lost that delegation for the two models.
The FAA revoked Boeing’s authority to issue airworthiness certificates for 737s in 2019 after the deadly Lion Air and Ethiopian Air crashes and 787s in 2022 for production quality issues. A 737 Max door plug blowout in January 2024 – and the embarrassing government-led investigation that followed – led Boeing to commit to monumental changes to its quality and safety controls.
But the FAA isn’t ready to turn over the safety certification keys entirely: On Friday, the FAA announced Boeing would be allowed to issue airworthiness certificates on alternating weeks while the agency itself would issue them on the other weeks.
“Safety drives everything we do, and the FAA will only allow this step forward because we are confident it can be done safely,” the agency said in a statement. “This decision follows a thorough review of Boeing’s ongoing production quality and will allow our inspectors to focus additional surveillance in the production process.”
The agency said despite the changes, it would still maintain “direct and rigorous oversight of Boeing’s production processes.”
Over the past year and a half, several whistleblowers have come forward denouncing Boeing’s safety and quality protocols, including for its 737 Max and 787 production.
After the Biden administration’s Department of Justice determined that Boeing’s recent safety problems constituted a violation of an earlier plea agreement, Boeing agreed to plead guilty last year to its role in the two fatal 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people. But the Trump Justice Department decided to drop its criminal case, one of many examples of the Trump administration going easier on prosecuting alleged corporate misdeeds.
The-CNN-Wire
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