FAA to Hold Boeing (BA.US) Accountable and Improve Safety Management

Written testimony shows the FAA chief will tell Congress on Tuesday the agency will hold Boeing accountable to ensure the aircraft manufacturer produces safe planes and improve its own safety management plan, according to people familiar with the matter. Mike Huerta, FAA chief, will tell the House Aviation Subcommittee: "Boeing must make significant changes to its quality system to ensure appropriate safety layers are in place due to systemic production quality issues." The subcommittee is holding a hearing on Boeing's quality improvement plan. Huerta will also testify Wednesday before a Senate committee on Boeing. Huerta said in June the agency had been "too hands-off" in overseeing Boeing before an emergency landing of a new 737 MAX 9 in Alaska in January, and questioned previous audits. Boeing is under investigation by the Justice Department and FAA over the Alaska incident. Huerta said the agency had permanently increased the use of Boeing inspectors, and had raised production of its best-selling 737 MAX before banning the manufacturer from making improvements to its quality and safety in January. Huerta said the FAA was monitoring the health of Boeing's production and quality systems through the review of key performance indicators that "provide real-time visibility into the production system and provide specific control limits to trigger corrective action when necessary." The agency is also "reassessing our current safety management initiatives and developing a strategy to improve our agency-wide safety management program," Huerta said. The agency is also studying how to use "the vast internal and external data resources to become more predictive in identifying risks across the entire aviation system," he said.