Audited by an independent (E.G. EU's) agency, with open records...
EITHER: A review of the actual paper trails and sources of the news story and build logs.
OR: A randomized sample of like 5-10% of the planes from the suspect time range looking at the suspect parts in question.
I think FAA had a fantastic record until this whole MAX PR nightmare - they’ve certainly damaged their reputation. But I feel like domain experts at Boeing or Airbus definitely are going to have an edge vs a lowly paid government auditor. EU’s agency or whatever are still going to have to rely on Boeing engineers input.
Having worked in the aviation industry (I was designing C-130 fuselage section) as a Mechanical Engineer, I can tell you that the whole enterprise sometimes feels like it’s supported on stilts, it’s a house of cards.
Now the NTSB on the other hand does a tremendous job. Sadly they only come in after disaster has struck.
[1] http://www.brusselstimes.com/magazine2/5828/myths-and-truths...
That is still vastly better than letting FAA + Boeing to keep misleading the public.
What FAA did are way worse than just PR nightmare, FAA didn't find out the design problem when 737 Max was given the green light to go kill people, after two crashes and 346 dead bodies, FAA still defended Boeing to the very last minute. It was the US president that ordered the 737 Max to be grounded in the US, not by the FAA, let's don't forget that.
FAA has no reputation left after the 737 Max incidents. The level of corruption is just shockingly unbelievable.
