FBI Joins Federal Probe Into Certification Of Faulty Boeing 737 MAX Aircraft - Reports

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st March, 2019) The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has joined a probe launched by the US Department of Transportation to look into the certification of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft which has two fatal incidents in recent months, media reported.

The FBI is providing assistance to the Transportation Department as it investigates the Federal Aviation Administration's approval of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft series, the Seattle Times reported on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter.

The Transportation Department launched the investigation after Boeing 737 MAX planes were globally grounded last week for an indefinite period of time due to the deadly crash of an aircraft of this model in Ethiopia on March 10 and the accident involving the same aircraft model in Indonesia last October.

The probe is focused on a flight safety system, which is believed to have played a certain role in the Indonesian plane crash. This system dubbed maneuvering characteristics augmentation system, or MCAS was designed to prevent stalls in flaps-retracted, low-speed, nose-up flight.

The Transportation Department has already notified the FAA about the inquiry and demanded to keep all relevant electronic documents, the publication said. First of all, the authorities intend to find out whether the FAA followed the established standards and engineering analyses in the certification process of the new MCAS system.

A Nairobi-bound Boeing 737 MAX 8 of the Ethiopian Airlines crashed on March 10 minutes after takeoff. All 157 people from 35 countries who were on board were killed.