UK flight regulator faces Brexit test with Boeing 737 Max approval

Britain’s aviation regulator, granted new powers in the Brexit split, faces an early test of how it uses them with the looming return of Boeing’s 737 Max jetliner. Approval of the Max to fly again after two fatal crashes provides a chance for the Civil Aviation Authority to demonstrate its independence. At the same time it highlights the challenge of carving out a role in a regulatory landscape dominated by the US FAA, which backed the Max in 2020, and the EASA, set to do so next week. Early expectations after Britain’s 2016 vote to quit the EU were that the CAA would remain an associate member of EASA. But leaving the European Court of Justice with ultimate jurisdiction was deemed incompatible with the UK aim of recovering sovereign powers from the bloc. Even then, had EASA ruled on the Max before the end of the Brexit transition period on Dec. 31, the CAA would have been spared such an early test. “From a practical standpoint the CAA’s task is unprecedented,” said Jan Walulik, who heads the Civil Aviation Laboratory at the Centre for Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, Warsaw. “Never before has a national aviation authority had to take on enhanced responsibility of such scale.” The CAA will make an independent decision on the Max, while sticking quite closely to the looming EASA directive, with which it was involved, Assistant Director Jonathan Nicholson said. It’s likely to follow EASA in allowing pilots to disable an erroneously activated “stick-shaker” alarm to prevent distraction, according to a person familiar with the situation who asked not to be named. The alarm shakes the control column violently in an emergency, though regulators in Europe and Canada have questioned whether it could contribute to cockpit crews’ confusion in chaotic moments.<br/>