The FAA’s enhanced oversight of Boeing will continue in the coming months, with weekly meetings and quarterly exchanges between the heads of the company and the U.S. regulator. The planemaker was barred in February by the FAA from boosting production of its best-selling plane after a door panel blew out during a Jan. 5 flight on a new 737 MAX 9.

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said he did not expect Boeing to win approval to increase production of the MAX “in the next few months” and has had no discussions with Boeing yet about the issue.

He said the FAA would monitor Boeing over the coming months to understand its quality and safety improvements “to give us a fundamental picture of whether they are in the right zone… We want to make sure the system is running as safely as it should.”

Boeing late on Thursday released an 11-page executive summary of its improvement plan based on findings from FAA audits and feedback from employees among other sources, including six critical, safety-focused production areas it will address.

The key performance measures include employee proficiency, the number of hours to address issues, including the total number of rework hours per airplane, and supplier shortages.

Boeing said the data “will provide real-time insights into production system health, enabling the company to identify and remediate potential quality and thus potential safety hazards before they fully mature.”

Production of the 737 MAX airplane is vital to the company’s finances. Last week the planemaker’s top finance executive said they will burn rather than generate cash in 2024 due in part to delayed deliveries.

Boeing said in a statement that its plan covers four categories including investments in workforce training and eliminating defects. “Many of these actions are underway and our team is committed to executing on each element of the plan,” Calhoun said in a statement.

The FAA said earlier that Boeing had committed to release more details of the plan “in the interest of transparency and public confidence.”

Boeing shares closed up 0.6%.

737 PRODUCTION SLOWED

The three-hour meeting was Calhoun’s second high-profile meeting with Whitaker this year as Boeing seeks to have costly production limits lifted by the FAA after soaring quality concerns compelled the regulator to slow its rapidly increasing 737 production schedule.

Boeing is currently producing significantly fewer than the 38 737 MAXs per month it is permitted under the FAA directive. Boeing has not requested relief from the cap and they have not even had preliminary discussions about it, Whitaker said.

Calhoun is due to leave the company by the end of the year as part of a broader management shake-up announced in the wake of the Alaska Airlines incident, but Boeing has not yet named a replacement.

The meeting included other senior Boeing leaders including Stephanie Pope, the new head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Boeing’s head of quality Elizabeth Lund and Mike Fleming, Boeing senior vice president and general manager, airplane programs, the sources said.

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The FAA said it was closely monitoring Boeing 737 Max targeted inspections and will consider additional action based on any further discovery of loose or missing hardware.

Boeing recommended the inspections after an international operator conducting routine maintenance discovered a bolt with a missing nut on a mechanism in the rudder-control linkage, the FAA said.

‘The issue identified on the particular airplane has been remedied,’ Boeing said.

‘Out of an abundance of caution, we are recommending operators inspect their 737 Max airplanes and inform us of any findings. We informed the FAA and our customers and will continue to keep them aware of the progress.’

Production and delivery of the Max will continue without interruption. The issue does not affect older-model 737 Next Generation planes, Boeing said.

Boeing shares dropped 0.67 percent at the closing bell on Thursday.

United Airlines American Airlines, two major domestic customers of the MAX, each said it did not expect inspections to have an impact on operations.

Southwest Airlines, a U.S. carrier that solely flies the 737 NG and MAX, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The FAA said Boeing had issued a message urging operators of newer single-aisle airplanes to inspect specific tie rods that control rudder movement for possible loose hardware. The rudder controls the position of an aircraft’s nose while in flight.

The inspections involve taking off an access panel and validating that the hardware had been properly installed, Boeing said. The process should take two hours, and Boeing is inspecting undelivered 737 MAX aircraft before handing them over to customers.

‘The FAA will remain in contact with Boeing and the airlines while the inspections are under way,’ the agency said, asking airlines to respond if any loose hardware has been detected previously and provide details on how quickly these inspections can be completed.

Any issue involving a rudder that is not working properly would likely be identified in a pre-flight check, as flight crews routinely examine the rudder system before an aircraft pushes back from the gate, Boeing said.

The inspections will help the FAA determine how prevalent the problem is and whether it is a sign of a larger lapse in production quality that requires the regulator to take further action, said Anthony Brickhouse, an air safety expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

‘Airlines need to take it seriously,’ he said. ‘But as a member of the flying public, I don’t see this as an issue to be concerned about.’

The 737 Max was grounded for 20 months worldwide after two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia.

Read the full originally published story on dailymail.co.uk

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