Boeing Needs US Safety Audit Of 737 MAX Before Planes Can Fly Again - Transportation Dept.

Boeing Needs US Safety Audit of 737 MAX Before Planes Can Fly Again - Transportation Dept.

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th March, 2019) The US Department of Transportation Inspector General has been asked to audit the safety certification process that certified the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft as safe to fly, the Department of Transportation disclosed in a press release.

The audit requested by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is intended to focus on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification of the 737 MAX, which was recently involved in two deadly crashes.

"As you know, Boeing requested an amended type certification for this aircraft in January 2012, and the Federal Aviation Administration issued the certification in March 2017," Chao wrote in an earlier memorandum that was reprinted in the release on Tuesday.

The FAA grounded Boeing 737 MAX planes in the United States last week following a March 10 crash in Ethiopia that killed all 157 passengers and crew and an October crash in Indonesia that killed 189.

Both crashes of the practically brand new planes occurred within minutes of takeoff and data recovered by investigators thus far indicates that pilots wrestled with a computerized maneuver characteristics augmentation system (MCAS) system in failed attempts to regain control of the aircraft. MCAS pitches the nose of the plane down if a sensor detects a too high angle of attack that might lead to a stall.