South Korea and Japan are setting aside historical grievances to redraw responsibilities for air traffic control over the East China Sea following recent near misses. Responsibility in the “AKARA corridor” through South Korean airspace is currently split, with South Korean controllers shepherding north-south flights, and Japan’s directing east-west flights, many of them in and out of Shanghai. But South Korean and Japanese air traffic controllers operate on different radio frequencies, making communications more difficult for pilots who may be dealing with emergency in-flight situations, or needing to change altitude to avoid turbulence or bad weather. An agreement in principle has been reached for South Korea to take over Japan’s role, the UN aviation agency said on Wednesday night, confirming a Reuters story published earlier in the day. China was included in the agreement, as its air traffic controllers currently hand over to Japanese controllers in the corridor, and will in future hand over to South Korean controllers. “The proposal we have put forward has been accepted by the three states,” ICAO Council President Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu said. “The glory actually goes to the states who were able to work together to find a solution.” Aliu said he expects the agreement to be formalized in January or February 2020 and would take effect in April. Airline trade group International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in a statement that it knows the deal “will have a positive impact on safety and efficiency.”<br/>
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The return of Boeing’s 737 Max appears to be slipping. Again. The plane has been grounded since March after two deadly crashes that killed 346 people. It has disrupted the global aviation industry and plunged Boeing into the biggest crisis the aerospace giant has ever faced. Yet today, after more than eight months of intensive work by Boeing and aviation regulators, the timing of the return of the 737 Max appears more precarious than ever. While Boeing has said publicly that it expects the FAA to begin the process of ungrounding the plane this year, that now appears unlikely, according to a government official familiar with the process. Instead, it is increasingly likely that the grounding will continue into 2020, given the series of tests Boeing must complete before the regulator clears the plane to fly. FAA officials believe that it could take until late January for the agency to lift the grounding and approve training requirements for pilots. It would then take weeks for airlines to prepare Max jets to operate commercial routes. Meanwhile, Congress, following a hearing last month where it grilled Boeing’s CE Dennis A. Muilenburg is planning to hold a hearing next month at which it expects FAA officials to testify about whether there are other problems with the Max that Boeing hasn’t yet addressed. The nagging uncertainty over the plane’s future has cast a pall over Boeing, the largest manufacturing exporter in the United States, and has shaved 15% off the company’s value since March. “It’s becoming increasingly clear that they’re not going to get it sorted out this year,” said Scott Hamilton, managing director of the Leeham Company, an aviation consultancy. “I would be completely flabbergasted if the airplane does not get recertified, but I’ve been flabbergasted on more than one occasion.” Story has more background and analysis.<br/>
The fuselage of Boeing’s upcoming 777X aircraft was split by a high-pressure rupture just as it approached its target stress level during a test in early September, Boeing said Wednesday. The world’s largest planemaker suspended load testing of the new widebody in September when media reports said a cargo door failed a ground stress test. There have also been issues with General Electric Co’s new GE9X turbine engine that will power the jet. The Seattle Times said photos it had obtained of the test on the 777X showed that the extent of the damage was greater than previously disclosed and earlier reports were wrong about crucial details. During the final load testing of a 777X test airplane, engineers ran a test that involved flexing the aircraft’s wings beyond what is expected during normal commercial service, Boeing said. “A testing issue occurred during the final minutes of the test, at approximately 99 percent of the final test loads, and involved a depressurization of the aft fuselage,” Boeing said. The company did not see any significant impact on the jetliner’s design or preparations for first flight, and it did not see any impact from the test on the overall program schedule, Boeing said. The 777X is due to fly for the first time in early 2020, with the first jet on track to be delivered to an airline in 2021, Boeing has said.<br/>