Summary
- The FAA head to appear before the committee to testify about Boeing’s proposed quality improvement plan.
- The oversight provided by the FAA is critical to ensuring safety and production quality at Boeing,
- Boeing cannot expand the production of its 737 aircraft until the FAA is satisfied with the quality control at the production line.
The head of the United States Federal Aviation Administration is set to testify in the coming days in front of the House of Representatives Transportation Committee.
The nature of the hearing is for the administrator to notify Congress about the quality plan developed by Boeing to improve the manufacturer’s quality control, but also for the administrator to explain the FAA’s oversight of Boeing before the Alaska Airlines midair panel blowout incident earlier this year.
Boeing’s proposed plan to improve quality control
Earlier this year, the American aircraft manufacturer, 
Boeing
, was asked by the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) to develop a plan to improve their quality control. While this plan was handed over in May, the FAA has since been assessing the plan to ensure it is viable.
According to Reuters, this is one of the reasons the head of FAA, Mike Whitaker, will be appearing in front of the House of Representatives Transportation Committee, to testify about the quality improvement plan developed by Boeing.
Photo: Thiago B Trevisan | Shutterstock
However, the hearing has been titled, FAA Oversight of Boeing’s Broken Safety Culture, and this is the other reason why the FAA will be testifying on September 25th, when the FAA has been asked to explain its oversight of Boeing, which subsequently led to several safety incidents, the most severe of which was the mid-flight door-panel blowout onboard an 
Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9
aircraft.
Simple Flying has reached out to the FAA for any possible comments on Boeing’s proposed quality improvement plans and the upcoming hearing. Any response will be updated in this article.
The FAA has an essential role to play
While Boeing has to improve its quality control, the FAA has an important role in maintaining oversight of the manufacturer’s operations, and the purpose of this hearing is to identify any potential shortcomings which can then be rectified to ensure future safety.
Earlier this year, US Commerce Committee Chair, Maria Cantwell, called for a meeting which also included Boeing’s ex-CEO Dave Calhoun to set up legislation to boost FAA oversight. The hearing was to understand why the FAA “dropped the ball” and to understand why their Safety Management System was not robust enough previously.
In a statement made to Reuters, Senator Richard Blumenthol stated,
The FAA has to explain what they knew and when they knew it. Boeing’s broken safety culture is in desperate need of repair, and the FAA has an essential role to play.
Capping aircraft production
The FAA has been getting more involved with Boeing’s operations and production since the door-panel blowout and while the
manufacturer has stated that it will be redesigning the door plugs
to prevent any similar safety incidents in the future, there is still a lot more work to be done.
Another key action taken by the FAA earlier this year was to limit the production of Boeing’s best-selling aircraft, the 737 MAX, and the rate of production will not be allowed to increase until the quality control issues at Boeing has been addressed.
The latest reports show that Boeing will remain under scrutiny for years to come. The manufacturer, as part of its plea deal, has been mandated to
invest $455 million in compliance and safety programs to improve safety, while remaining under probation for three years
, during which time the manufacturer would have an independent compliance monitor reviewing Boeing’s operations.