Originally Posted by
Pilot DAR
I see it differently: If Boeing chose to issue the highest level of service bulletin asking operators to not operate the aircraft for safety reasons, pending resolution, and then asked the FAA to make it mandatory by AD, I expect that there would be an AD issued to ground the FAA regulated fleet within hours, and much of the world's fleet would be similarly regulated shortly thereafter. What regulator would decline to ground a fleet at the manufacturer's request with good cause?
Yes, Boeing, as any manufacturer, is required to technically support their product, after they have taken any action necessary to assure safety.
Agree that in most cases such a recommendation by Manufacturer would get the attention of the Faa towards mandating an emergency AD (BTDT), but the FAA has additional requirements to live under before taking an action to ground a fleet. After all the manufacturer must have provided what they thought was a good enough fix else they wouldn't have offered it for an AD. In the end it's the operators who resist groundings as they convince the FAA that there pilots feel the fix will work for them.
When I thought a product fix was not available I could ask the FAA to restrict fleet operations under specific condition and the operators would push back to the point where they promised their own fix without an FAA restriction..
Lots of people in this decision process