Boeing still has work to do on safety, FAA chief says

Melvin Backman
·1-min read
Federal Aviation Administration head Mike Whitaker - Photo: Andrew Harnik (Getty Images)
Federal Aviation Administration head Mike Whitaker - Photo: Andrew Harnik (Getty Images)

Boeing (BA) isn’t done doing what it needs to do in order to live up to the expectations of the Federal Aviation Administration in the wake of a January door plug blowout. Administrator Mike Whitaker said as much to Congress on Tuesday.

“There’s progress, but they’re not where they need to be yet,” he told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Whitaker said that he meets with Boeing’s CEO quarterly and that quality controls have improved. One reason for that is that the supervisory process from the FAA has been beefed up, with more safety inspectors watching the planemaker’s facilities.

Another reason has been that Boeing cut down on and tightened things up regarding the amount of so-called “traveled work” it does, during which plane parts are moved along in the production out-of-sequence in order to get the planes built more quickly.

While Boeing works through the issues that resulted in a 737 Max 9 to lose a piece of fuselage, the FAA has put in place a cap on how many of the planes can produced at a time.

Asked whether the American public should feel comfortable flying on Boeing-made planes, he said yes.

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