The FAA came under intense scrutiny over the process used to certify the 737MAX airliner and not identifying software glitches that apparently resulted in two deadly crashes. To add to the questions being asked following a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on oversight of the agency, the New York Times reported recently that FAA managers made decisions, at least in part based on Boeing’s timing and budget needs.
Citing the Times story, Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, raised concerns over “instances in which F.A.A. managers appeared to be more concerned with Boeing’s production timeline, rather than the safety recommendations of its own engineers.”
Ali Bahrami, the F.A.A.’s head of safety, acknowledged that the agency could have done more to inform pilots about MCAS. “We should have included more description in the computer-based training in order to explain what MCAS is,” Mr. Bahrami said.