FAA, EASA vow to boost collaboration on new airplane certification

The FAA and European Union Aviation Safety Agency said on Thursday they would boost collaboration on new airplane certification following a three-day joint meeting in Washington. Since two Boeing 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed a combined 346 people, aviation regulators around the world have tightened oversight of new airplanes. The FAA and EASA pledged to take a number of steps to work together more closely and deepen proactive collaboration on certification activities. "As we look to the next decade, establishing a unified strategic direction based on information sharing and collaboration with our international partners will meet the needs of our global aviation system of the future," FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement. EASA Executive Director Florian Guillermet said it was more important than ever for international aviation regulators to work together and to ensure that safety needs were always met. Guillermet told Reuters last week he would propose the FAA act as an observer on safety audits, including those of European planemaker Airbus. The EASA and FAA also vowed to strengthen information exchanges on safety oversight and to encourage each agency's technical experts to "work together and rely on one another to reduce duplication of effort, taking a risk-based approach." The FAA is closely scrutinizing two new variants of the MAX awaiting certification, including the MAX 7, which is not expected to be certified until 2025 at the earliest after Boeing dropped a request in January for a key safety exemption.<br/>