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0 pointsdmix7y ago0 comments

This is some weak logic. So a super-high capital business like an Airline is going to flaunt aircraft safety rules, potentially risking hundreds of lives of their customers and employees... to what exactly? Buy some cheaper uncertified Chinese(?) aircrafts or fly other certified aircrafts unsafely...to make a little extra money? And then run away when the lawsuits and families of the dead come chasing you?

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2 comments · 2 top-level

olliej7y ago

No, it was explicitly because Boeing wanted to be able to short circuit the normal safety analysis in order to get a poorly designed product to market to compete with the airbus a320neo.

The level of trust in the US aeronautic safety agencies can be summed up in other countries explicitly requiring non-US investigators.

That is the long term impact I'm talking about - it seems entirely plausible that this will become the norm rather than the exception it is now.

village-idiot7y ago

There’s already evidence that the FAA had internal pressure to devolve regulation authority to Boeing in order to speed up certification and release to compete with the A320neo. That’s part of the reason why the MCAS system was allowed to listen to a single AoA sensor instead of two, and possibly why Boeing was able to get away with not training pilots on the new MCAS system.

Cutting regulatory corners is a lot more complicated than “buying cheaper uncertified Chinese aircrafts”, and it’s completely invisible to the general public until an incident occurs.

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