(Sharecast News) - An internal investigation from the US Federal Aviation Administration has found that the regulator decided to allow the Boeing 737 MAX jet to keep flying despite being aware of the risks posed by the model.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the November 2018 internal Federal Aviation Administration analysis, expected to be released during a House committee hearing Wednesday, reveals that without agency intervention, the MAX could have averaged one fatal crash about every two or three years, according to industry officials and regulators.
That assessment and related materials could raise new questions about the FAA's decision-making processes.
The news comes after the the 737 Max crash in Indonesia in 2018 and a crash in Ethiopia earlier in 2019 that led to the global grounding of all aircraft of the same model.
America's FAA has also come under scrutiny for faulty agency assumptions on ways to alleviate hazards.
An FAA spokesman said on Tuesday: "It was clear from the beginning that an unsafe condition existed," adding that the analysis "provided additional context in helping determine the mitigation action."
In an email, the spokesman said such analyses tend to overstate risk because they take the most conservative approach and because specifically identified problems likely appear more serious than they do in the operating fleet.
5 Feb 2024 10:52
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