Some FAA engineers recommended grounding Boeing 737 MAX soon after second crash in 2019

According to a report released on Friday, in March 2019, some engineers at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) suggested that the Boeing 737 MAX be grounded after the second fatal crash, but the FAA did not take any action at the time.

The report from the Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General stated that individual FAA engineers recommended grounding the plane while the accidents were being investigated due to perceived similarities between the two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. However, agency officials in Seattle and at headquarters chose not to do so.

In November 2020, after Boeing made software upgrades and training changes, the FAA lifted the flight prohibition order and allowed the MAX to return to service, following a 20-month grounding that cost Boeing over $20 billion and prompted lawmakers to pass new legislation for airplane certification.

The report also mentioned that FAA officials expressed frustration with foreign civil aviation authorities for grounding the plane before data linking the two accidents was available. The report further pointed out that the FAA has not updated its underlying order and related guidance for post-event risk assessment processes for over ten years and lacks quantifiable human factors data.

The FAA agreed with the Inspector General’s recommendations for improvements for risk assessments and other issues. The report also stated that after the Ethiopian Airlines crash, an FAA engineer drafted a preliminary risk analysis for the MAX, which showed that the fleet risk for the MAX was over 13 times the agency’s recommended guidelines. The report noted that the engineer’s risk analysis was not completed or reviewed by managers due to a lack of detailed flight data. Boeing declined to comment on the report.