Boeing 737 again in the news

[spornrad]

FAA says Boeing is appointing people lacking expertise to oversee airplane certification

• Brain drain: during the downturn from the pandemic Boeing offered early retirement to many more senior FAA-authorized safety engineers.
• An FAA letter of complaint to Boeing last week states that many of the replacement Boeing safety appointees the agency interviewed this summer did not measure up.
• New rules are scheduled to take effect before year end that will require every proposed appointee to be interviewed by the FAA and then either approved or rejected by the agency.
• Some lacked “direct experience requiring expertise in the general certification process.”
• Some were not “cognizant of related technical requirements and problems related to civil aircraft approval.”
• Some did not know the “technical and procedural requirements involved in obtaining such approvals.”
• Weaknesses in the Boeing panels that appointed these engineers: lacking independent assessment of a candidate’s experience and technical capability.
• The appointment process appear to be just a formality instead of being an independent validation that the candidate had made the grade.