September 26, 2019 9:45 am
Investigators of a whistleblower complaint have concluded that the safety inspectors that were in charge of the training curriculum for Boeing 737 Max pilots were “underqualified” and that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provided misleading information about the issue to Congress.
This is the latest event in the ongoing saga between Congress and the FAA after Boeing’s new planes were grounded in mid-March after two new 737 Max jets crashed in Ethiopia and Indonesia, killing 346 people.
In a letter to President Trump, special counsel Henry Kerner said the “FAA’s official responses to Congress appear to have been misleading in their portrayal of FAA employee training and competency,” according to the Washington Post.
Kerner’s office investigates whistleblower complaints.
“The FAA’s failure to ensure safety inspector competency for these aircraft puts the flying public at risk,” Kerner said in the statement.
The FAA responded to the findings with a statement, in which it expressed its confidence in the information that had been given to Congress and reiterated that “aviation safety is always our foremost priority.”
