European regulators seek more oversight over Boeing

(Sharecast News) - Boeing needs greater oversight from regulators said the EU's aviation safety chief after faults in the US's review of the controversial 737 Max were recently found.
Patrick Ky, executive director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, said the US safety regime lacked Europe's "rigid" processes, which would have raised questions about Boeing's software that was later deemed to be the main factor behind the crashes.

Two fatal incidents in late 2018 and early 2019 killed 346 people, leading to the grounding of all 737 Max jets.

"What went wrong [was] the way in which Boeing performed a certain number of assessments and the way in which assessments were taken on board by the Federal Aviation Administration," he said.

Europe has a much more structured and rigid process, he added.

"If Airbus had come up with a similar type of analysis [...] I think we would have been able to detect earlier that the safety criticality [...] was not as low as described."

The FAA has come under fire in the US for being too close to Boeing and succumbing to pressure to minimise certification requirements. Boeing has also been accused of withholding information from the regulator.

A report published in October found that the FAA had not scrutinised Boeing sufficiently during the certification process.

The relationship between international regulators and the FAA was now likely to change as other bodies were likely to carry out stricter checks from here on out.

"I think we are working extremely well, with true complementarity between the technical teams, with real teamwork and complete transparency," Ky said.

According to Ky, before the Max grounding, regulators were "doing things at a different pace, with different speeds and with different deadlines."

Meanwhile, the EASA boss said he expected to approve the 737 Max's return to service in Europe by the end of February.