Boeing Goes Before Congress In 737 Max Probe

In a highly polarized Washington in which the two major parties seem able to agree on nothing, the committed members from both sides of the aisle were nearly unanimous in their outrage over the processes at Boeing that they see as having resulted in the certification of a faulty system and, hence, the two crashes, in which 346 people died.

Subscribe today to Plane & Pilot magazine for industry news, reviews and much more delivered straight to you!

Muilenburg, for his part, apologized to the families, but even in his apologies, his words seemed too carefully chosen. He said that Boeing "deserves this scrutiny," not that it deserves the committee's approbation. Equally troubling was his insistence that the workings of the MCAS system didn't need to be in the flight manual or flight training syllabus, though he did concede that perhaps there should be changes to the relationship between the FAA and Boeing. Current rules allow Boeing employees to act as designated representatives of the FAA, with the power to sign off certain steps in the certification process. (Aircraft manufacturing insiders are unanimous in their belief that the system would stop working without the designee system.)

Muilenburg also seemed at a loss to explain why the company failed to share private messages and emails from Boeing's employees questioning what they saw as a too-cozy relationship between the plane maker and regulators, and others that raised alarm bells about the risks inherent in MCAS as it was then designed.

Muilenburg said that he hopes that the 737 would regain its flying status in the coming weeks or months, but stopped short of giving a more specific target.