EDITORIAL: Boeing’s cosy relationship with regulator undermines trust
The US-based Federal Aviation Administration failed for days to ground the Air Boeing 737 Max 8 after a crash in Ethiopia despite many countries taking the initiative
It’s an accepted norm in aviation that when there is a decision to be made about grounding aircraft, it should normally come from the home regulating authority of the manufacturer. In the case of the Boeing 737 Max 8 that crashed in Ethiopia last weekend, killing all 157 people on board, that would have been the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US. For days after the disaster, the FAA did not do that, while Boeing vouched for the safety of the aircraft. While countries such as China and Indonesia, together with Ethiopia, almost immediately banned the model, most Western nations kept flying them, before the UK broke ranks, to be joined later by a number of other European nations. They, along with Comair, which initially said it would keep flying its 737 Max 8 before bowing to public pressure, were probably following this convention. They were, rightly, waiting for guidance from the main regulator and evidence of a link between that crash in Ethiopia and another deadly acc...
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