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US safety board to scrutinize FAA oversight of Boeing

The National Transport Security Board on Wednesday opened a hearing to examine the Federal Air travel Administration's oversight of Boeing after a 737 MAX 9 midair emergency in January raised major safety questions.

The board is holding the 2nd day of an investigative hearing into the door panel blowout in the brand-new Alaska Airlines jet after the very first day focused on Boeing actions before the event.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy stated the board would like to know why the FAA did not do something about it earlier.

We have a great deal of questions-- there was information understood, Homendy stated about FAA oversight of Boeing, citing problems, missing and incorrect documents, as well as incorrect policies that have been issues for several years. This is not brand-new.

Homendy has questions about FAA audit procedures and whether Boeing previously got advance notification of reviews and asked if they were too focused on reviewing paperwork.

After the incident, the FAA barred Boeing from broadening production beyond 38 aircrafts each month and revealed a 90-day evaluation of the planemaker and has actually needed considerable quality and producing enhancements before it will enable the planemaker to trek production.

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker stated in June the firm was too hands off in Boeing oversight. The FAA's approach before the mid-air accident was too focused on documents audits and not focused enough on assessments, Whitaker added. The FAA has likewise improved the variety of inspectors at Boeing and Spirit factories.

We will continue our aggressive oversight of the company and ensure it repairs its systemic production-quality problems, the FAA stated Wednesday.

Last week Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell and Senator Tammy Duckworth introduced legislation to review and strengthen safety management systems at the FAA.

Cantwell asked the FAA to carry out an extensive review into its oversight of Boeing and stated the FAA conducted a combined overall of 298 audits of Boeing and fuselage provider Spirit AeroSystems over the prior 2 years before the January mishap that did not result in any enforcement actions.

Clearly, they were doing an audit that suggested nothing, since it didn't discover any issues and they stated everything was great, Cantwell stated.

(source: Reuters)