737 Max: US House search faults Boeing, aviation agency

ANKARA

Boeing's troubled 737 Max aircraft development process was "marred" by technical problems, lack of transparency, according to a preliminary congressional report released Friday.

The report, which was written by the staff of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, also accused the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of "failing its duty to identify key safety problems and to ensure that they were adequately addressed during the certification process," calling the agency's review "grossly insufficient".

"The combination of these problems doomed the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines flights," said the preliminary investigative report.

Boeing's top-selling aircraft model was grounded worldwide after two crashes that cost hundreds of lives and hit the company billions of dollars financially.

The report came a few days before the first anniversary of the fatal Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET-302 crash on March 10. The plane crashed shortly after taking off from an Addis Ababa airport, killing all 157 onboard.

The model was also involved in an October 2018 crash outside of Jakarta, Indonesia. All 189 people on board Lion Air Flight JT610 were killed.

Many countries, including the U.S., Turkey, Russia and Iran, grounded the model.

The report accused Boeing and the FAA of "gambling with the public’s safety in the aftermath of the Lion Air crash, resulting in the death of 157 more individuals on Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 less than five months later."

The report noted that in the aftermath of the Lion Air crash, the FAA conducted a risk assessment which calculated that without a fix of Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, there would be an estimated 15 more fatal, catastrophic accidents.

"However, the FAA permitted the 737 MAX to continue flying anyway while Boeing and the FAA worked on designing and validating a fix to the MCAS software," it said. "That judgment proved tragically wrong."

The report emphasized that the FAA "must develop a more aggressive" certification and oversight structure to ensure safe aircraft designs and to regain the confidence of the flying public, while Boeing needs to "create and maintain an effective and vigorous safety culture."

The investigation of the committee included interviews with Boeing whistleblowers and revelations of internal company documents.