Ethiopian airliner down in Africa

[A0283]

Senate Appropriatons hearing notes on 737 MAX

Secretary Chao (during Senate appropriations hearing March 27th) answering the question on why the FAA did not ground the plane faster. She repeatedly points out the fact driven approach of the FAA. No facts known warranted a grounding according to the FAA. That started to change on the Wednesday morning of March 13th when two facts emerged:

[1] new, raw satellite data became available, this first had to be processed before it could be read, this data gave information on the first 3 minutes of the flight, that showed similarities with the Lion flight data,

[2] physical evidence was found at the site that was similar to the Lion crash evidence/information,

[3] not the same importance as point 1 and 2, but the FAA had expected that the black boxes would have been read sooner, …

There was, relatively speaking, a lot of attention for the Ethiopian and Lion accidents in this hearing covering all transportation type funding budgets.

She repeated both the IG audit (detailed factual history of the certification of the 737 MAX 8) and the establishment of a special advisory committee that will adress certification issues. This will be further explained during the later safety related hearing in the Senate.

She also indicated that she shared a number of specific concerns of the various senators (like suggested 'cozy' relations between manufacturers and FAA management), that they would be adressed and investigated, and the Senate kept informed of progress.

One senator was already preparing a Bill aimed at demanding that 'safety related equipment' should be included in the 'basic price of the aircraft'. You could read that as 'should be standard' probably. Another senator, noting he was a pilot himself, considered an AoA indicator to be such a 'standard safety item'. Seems a bit premature but ... That last senator also mentioned that the American public had lost faith in the plane.

So no new issues for pprune readers (except perhaps point [3]). But interesting to see how this is translated at the political level.

FYI - these are my own notes