US aviation regulators were directly involved in the review and approval of the anti-stall system on Boeing’s grounded 737 Max aircraft that has been involved in 2 fatal crashes, the chief of the FAA plans to tell Congress Wednesday. The FAA is also revamping how it oversees companies such as Boeing that have been granted authority to use their own employees to sign off on aircraft designs, the DoT's inspector general will also testify to a Senate panel. “FAA engineers and flight test pilots were involved in the MCAS operational evaluation flight test,” Daniel Elwell said in the remarks prepared for a Senate hearing Wednesday. “The certification process was detailed and thorough, but, as is the case with newly certified products, time yields more data to be applied for continued analysis and improvement.” <br/>
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Software updates that Boeing is readying for the 737 Max airliner should be cleared by an independent review before the beleaguered jet is allowed to fly again, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said Tuesday. Peter DeFazio said the panel will send a bipartisan letter to the FAA Tuesday requesting the agency bring on an independent, third-party to evaluate the proposed fix and ensure that pilots receive adequate information and training on the system. “This all must be done before the 737 MAX is certified to return to service,” DeFazio said. “The traveling public needs assurances that the FAA will only re-certify the aircraft for flight if and when the FAA, outside safety and technical experts, and pilots agree the aircraft is safe to fly.” <br/>
Congressional investigators examining the FASA's safety certification of Boeing's 737 MAX aircraft also are questioning why it has taken months to complete a safety fix initially described to pilots and airlines in November. With a Senate Commerce subcommittee slated to kick off Capitol Hill hearings Wednesday about Boeing's grounded jet model, lawmakers plan to examine the timeline that regulators and the plane maker have relied on to develop and test software changes for a suspect stall-prevention system. Among the issues lawmakers are expected to raise are whether federal employee furloughs during the partial govt shutdown in December and January delayed completion of the fix, and whether differences of opinion between the FAA and Boeing stretched out the schedule. <br/>
The head of the UK's Flight Safety Committee says that airlines and plane manufacturers are keeping safety training to an "absolute minimum" under pressure to keep their costs low. Dai Whittingham, head of the trade group, said the industry has "less desire to provide training". Whittingham said that "shareholders are squeezing airlines hard on costs. Spending on training fleets of captains and first officers is not necessarily welcome." He said that if airlines wanted more training then they had to argue with their financial teams to get it signed off. Money was also an issue for the airplane manufacturers, according to Whittingham. "They don't want to sell aircraft that will incur a big training bill for the airline, it is in their interests to keep costs down." <br/>
A software glitch at a German air traffic control centre has caused flight cancellations for the best part of a week. Yet it's just one of several problems afflicting this most critical cog in the global transport wheel. In a given week, staff at the DFS manage and handle up to 60,000 flights from 4 control centres, one of which is in Langen. Its fluent operation is central to aviation in Germany and Europe. But things are far from fluent at the moment. Software problems have affected DFS since Wednesday, with computer glitches impacting air traffic control systems at Langen, forcing the cancellation of several flights, including 46 from Frankfurt Airport Monday alone. "The technicians are working on rectifying the error," DFS said last week. However, 5 days on, the problem is still significantly affecting passengers. <br/>
China’s civil aviation regulator has stopped taking applications for Boeing’s 737 Max 8 airworthiness certification since March 21, an official at the regulator’s news department said Tuesday. China was the first to ground the newest version of Boeing’s workhorse 737 model earlier this month following a deadly Ethiopian Airlines crash. The official did not provide any other details. Earlier Tuesday, financial magazine Caijing reported that the CAAC had suspended certification for Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, citing an internal document issued March 21. The regulator also said it will only resume reviewing applications when it is determined that the aircraft is airworthy and it has sent staff to take part in the investigation and to review design changes, according to Caijing. <br/>
Airbus has yet to disclose the extent to which its general terms agreement with China’s state aviation supply organisation will translate into new orders. The agreement covers the purchase of 300 aircraft, comprising 290 A320-family jets and 10 A350s. Airbus points out that the pact creates an “approval framework” for aircraft ordered by Chinese airlines, “be [these] existing orders or future orders”. Airbus added: “The general terms agreement confirms the Chinese govt’s willingness to approve a certain number of aircraft purchases by Chinese airlines." Airbus had 591 single-aisle aircraft assigned to undisclosed customers at the end of February, all but 25 of which were for re-engined A320neo-family variants. Its undisclosed customer backlog also features 24 A350s. <br/>