US: Senate probe finds Boeing ‘inappropriately influenced’ Max tests

An FAA test to gather data on returning the Boeing 737 Max to service was improperly influenced by the company, according to a US Senate investigative report released Friday. The 101-page report, based on a whistle-blower account, alleged that the FAA and Boeing officials were attempting to create “a pre-determined outcome” by essentially coaching pilots before testing their reaction time to a failure similar to what occurred in a pair of crashes involving the Max. “It appears, in this instance, FAA and Boeing were attempting to cover up important information that may have contributed to the 737 Max tragedies,” the report said. The FAA last month approved the jetliner’s return to flight, following a global grounding that began in March 2019. Boeing redesigned key flight-control software after the crashes, one off the coast of Indonesia in 2018 followed by another in Ethiopia in 2019, that killed a total of 346 people. “Our findings are troubling,” Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, said in a statement. “The report details a number of significant examples of lapses in aviation safety oversight and failed leadership in the FAA. It is clear that the agency requires consistent oversight to ensure their work to protect the flying public is executed fully and correctly.” The FAA said in a statement on Friday night that “we are carefully reviewing the document, which the committee acknowledges contains a number of unsubstantiated allegations.”<br/>