Boeing, in the midst of one its worst crises in years, is under pressure from crash victims' families, airlines, lawmakers in Washington and regulators around the world to prove that the automated flight control systems aboard its 737 MAX aircraft are safe, and that pilots have the training required to override the system in an emergency.
WASHINGTON: The safety-certification process that put the Boeing 737 MAX in the air is coming under congressional scrutiny in what is shaping up as a test of the aircraft maker’s influence in Washington.
Boeing Co. BA -2.83% and its lobbyists for years pushed to speed up the time it takes to get a new plane certified to fly. Congress and the Federal Aviation Administration—which were both targets of the company’s multimillion-dollar lobbying—supported efforts to delegate some safety-certification functions to Boeing.
Following the two fatal crashes of Boeing 737 MAX airplanes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, lawmakers are questioning whether a new automated antistall system in the aircraft was properly vetted.
“There are a whole host of questions about the certification of the plane,” said House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D., Ore.). “The more I learn, the more concerned I become.”
Lawmakers already are looking to restore more federal oversight. Several are zeroing in on the Organization Designation Authorization program, established by the FAA in 2005, that allows certain aspects of safety certification to be delegated by the FAA to a plane maker.
That program “left the fox guarding the henhouse,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D. Conn) wrote in a letter sent to acting FAA Administrator Daniel Elwell on Friday.
In a statement, the FAA said it had been repeatedly directed by Congress to streamline certification, including by delegating some tasks under the ODA program. “FAA has never allowed companies to police themselves or self-certify their aircraft,” the agency said. “The use of delegation has been a vital part of our safety system since the 1920s, and without it, the success of our country’s aviation system likely would have been stifled.”
Even after the ODA program was rolled out, Congress bolstered efforts to accelerate the process of getting new planes from factory floors to runways. FAA reauthorization bills in 2012 and 2018 directed the agency to make reviews quicker and less costly while maintaining safety.
Democrats including Mr. DeFazio opposed the 2012 bill on a party-line vote, although he and other Democrats approved last year’s reauthorization.
The move to streamline certifications followed years of advocacy by some members of Congress, including Rep. Rick Larsen, a Washington Democrat who represents a district where Boeing is a major employer and who is current chairman of the subcommittee with FAA oversight.
Mr. Larsen didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Boeing says continued efforts to improve the certification process, including the ODA program, would help it bring newer, safer jetliners to market more efficiently.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that federal investigators are looking into whether Boeing provided incomplete or misleading information about the 737 MAX aircraft to U.S. air-safety regulators and customers.
Boeing said there were no shortcuts in approvals for the 737 MAX, which achieved final FAA certification on March 9, 2017.
“The 737 MAX was certified in accordance with the identical FAA requirements and processes that have governed certification of all previous new airplanes and derivatives,” Boeing said in a statement. The company said the FAA reviewed the antistall program “and concluded that it met all certification and regulatory requirements.”
In a statement, Boeing defended the practice of delegating some certification tasks to its own employees, saying it was safe and allowed the FAA to focus on reviewing new technologies.
“Following an extensive qualification process, Boeing employees who are designated representatives of the FAA participate in regular trainings and receive guidance and oversight from the FAA,” the company said. “Boeing employees serving in this capacity act independently on behalf of the FAA when performing in this role.”
A Senate subcommittee hearing on airline safety is scheduled for Wednesday.
Federal lobbying records show that more than 10 of the Boeing’s government-affairs staff lobbied the FAA last year on the issue of certification as the company worked to bring new airplane models to market.
In the past, Boeing has highlighted it as a positive for investor returns.
“There’s a lot of work going on in streamlining certifications that are beneficial frankly both to our Commercial and our Defense business,” Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg told investors on an earnings call in February 2018. “And we’re making some good progress there.”
Those gains in speeding up aircraft certification are now under threat.
Since the March 10 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX—which followed the crash of a Lion Air 737 MAX in Indonesia in October—Boeing’s government-affairs machine has roared to life. Boeing executives have fielded requests for information and briefed officials who will have the greatest sway over the government’s response to the crisis, according to the company and government officials.
That has included President Trump, whom Mr. Muilenburg called just before Mr. Trump announced that the FAA would ground the 737 MAX, according to Boeing. The company has said that Mr. Muilenburg and Boeing’s board suggested to Mr. Trump that the plane be grounded. A government official familiar with the discussions said the company didn’t suggest the grounding in its direct discussions with the FAA. FAA officials have said the government and the company arrived at the decision at the same time, when new data about the Ethiopia crash emerged.
Boeing is relying on what one lobbyist called its “direct champions” on Capitol Hill—members of Congress who hail from the company’s manufacturing and corporate power centers in Washington state and Chicago and reliably defend its interests in the capital.
Boeing has built an army in Washington of more than 30 in-house lobbyists and 16 outside firms to press for its interests across the federal government.
The company’s $15.1 million in lobbying expenditures in 2018 was the fourth-largest total of any individual company, according to filings compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Among the company’s external lobbyists is Norm Dicks, a former Democratic congressman from Washington, where the company has a major presence. Mr. Dicks was hailed in the local press as “Mr. Boeing” during his time in Congress. In 2018, Boeing paid Mr. Dicks $290,000 to lobby his former colleagues on the company’s behalf, primarily concerning a troubled aerial-refueling tanker plane for the Air Force, lobbying records show.
The company’s lobbyists work the halls of Congress seeking to influence everything from the development of future space initiatives to the federal tax code to military-procurement policies.
The company is known to swarm the White House when foreign leaders visit, the better to press the case for the company’s military aircraft and airliners. It was a leading corporate proponent of reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank, one of a number of policy fights that have driven up Boeing’s lobbying spending in recent years. Its lobbying expenditures peaked at nearly $22 million in 2015. - WSJ
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