The FAA rejected a request by Boeing to self-regulate certain tasks for the standard five-year period, allowing the agency to keep a closer eye on the aircraft manufacturer, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Instead, the agency has renewed Boeing’s Organization Design Authorization program for three years, which was set to expire on June 1.
“There are multiple in-work improvements that the FAA would like to assess within the Boeing organization over the next three years,” Ian Won, an agency official, reportedly said in a letter to the company.
These changes include better protection for employees from interference by company officials, an update to the company’s manual for the program, and additional audits to ensure a safety management system is effectively in place.
Boeing said in a statement that it is “committed to working transparently with the FAA through their detailed and rigorous processes.”
The Boeing 737 MAX was grounded for 20 months following crashes in 2018 and 2019 five months apart that killed a total of 346 people.
The FAA is expected to continue being responsible for the issuance of final safety certificates for new Boeing 737 MAX and 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
An investigative report from the House of Representatives released in September blamed Boeing and the FAA for “repeated and serious failures.”
RELATED: House report faults Boeing and FAA failures for deadly 737 MAX crashes
The congressional report noted that the crashes “were the horrific culmination of a series of faulty and technical assumptions by Boeing’s engineers, a lack of transparency on the part of Boeing’s management, and grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA – the pernicious result of regulatory capture on the part of the FAA with respect to its responsibilities to perform robust oversight of Boeing and to ensure the safety of the flying public.”
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