FAA review panel to judge Boeing’s safety policy

UPDATE – Boeing says it already has made “fundamental changes” to its safety policy and culture since the two fatal MAX accidents, but the coming months will be crucial to see if the airframer is heading in the right direction. Making a judgment will be the safety review panel, for which the FAA appointed 24 experts last week. FAA review panel to judge Boeing’s safety policy.

The panel will “review Boeing’s safety management processes and how they impact Boeing’s safety culture. The panel will convene in the coming weeks and have nine months to complete its review and issue findings and recommendations,” the FAA says in a January 5 statement. The panel is a key requirement of the 2020 Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act.

On the panel are individuals from NASA, the FAA, labor unions, independent engineering experts, air carriers, manufacturers with delegated authority, legal experts, and others. Representatives of NASA include Dr. Tracy Dillinger (Manager for Safety Culture and Human Factors) and Dr. Immanuel Barshi (Sr. Principal Investigator, Human Systems Integration), of the FAA Jim Phoenix (Manager, Boeing Certificate Management Office), Captain Brian Lesko on behalf of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), and Jon Holden of the International Association of Machinists

District 751. The original list also included James Tidball, Head of Certification of Airbus Americas Engineering, but the European airframer withdrew his participation a week later. Reuters reported on January 13 that this was because the team was to focus on a particular OEM.