Without government intervention,more people would lose their lives in 737 MAX crashes,the regulator predicted before the second fatal crash.Credit:Bloomberg
"Despite its own calculations,the FAA rolled the dice on the safety of the travelling public and let the plane continue to fly,"Democratic congressman Peter DeFazio said.
By the time the FAA conducted the review last December,however,it had already taken action that it assumed would mitigate that risk.
About a week after the Lion Air accident off the coast of Indonesia in November,the regulator had issued a directive instructing pilots of the 737 MAX to use a common emergency procedure to deal with the erroneous activation of software,which was a factor in the crash.
The agency took the results of the December review as confirmation that the action it had taken was sufficient,according to a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an internal matter.
However,in March,there was a second deadly crash involving the MAX,this time in Ethiopia. In all,346 people were killed in the two crashes.
FAA chief Stephen Dickson,maintained that the agency was independent and that the aircraft certification process was fundamentally sound.