
TUI'S BOEING 737 MAX/BLOOMBERG
Europe’s top aviation regulator expects to take longer to get Boeing’s 737 Max back into service than the projected timeline being taken by the US, which would likely push the grounded plane’s return into next year on the continent, reported Bloomberg.
Patrick Ky, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Chief last week met with officials from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to say that the aviation regulator’s decision will follow the US regulator.
Ky has made several statements in recent months indicating that Europe would likely trail the US on the review of Boeing’s best-selling plane, though the tenor of his comments has ranged from optimism that it would closely mirror the FAA to indications it could take much longer.
In a statement, FAA said that its first priority is safety and the regulator will set no time frame for when the work will be completed.
“Each government will make its own decision to return the aircraft to service based on a thorough safety assessment,” said FAA.
Boeing’s projections earlier this year that fixes it is designing for the plane—involved in two fatal crashes, off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia, that killed 346 people—would be completed by early in the fourth quarter have gradually slipped.
Boeing is altering a system that helped lead to the two crashes and is reworking the plane’s flight computer systems to make them more redundant following FAA’s safety review.
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