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Europe is set to lift the ban on flying the Boeing 737 MAX passenger plane in January, after U.S. regulators last week broke a 20-month shutdown triggered by two fatal crashes.
The head of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said in a comment broadcast on Saturday that the 737 MAX was safe to fly after design changes to the jet that crashed twice in five months in 2018 and in 2019, killing 346 people.
“We wanted to do a totally independent safety analysis of this aircraft, so we ran our own flight checks and tests,” executive director Patrick Ky told Paris Air Forum, an online aviation conference hosted by La Tribune.
“All these studies tell us that the 737 MAX can be back in service. We have begun to put all the measures in place,” he said. “It is likely that in our case we will make the decisions, allowing him to return to duty sometime in January.”
The EASA decision is seen as the most important milestone following the FAA’s approval as, as Airbus’ responsible watchdog, it too has significant weight in the industry.
Officials confirmed that a draft EASA directive proposing to end grounding in Europe will be published next week, followed by a 30-day period for comments. After the finishing touches, this would have led to an unfounded decision in January.
The time it takes for flights to resume in Europe depends on the training of pilots and the time taken by the airlines to update software and perform other actions required by EASA.
In the United States, commercial flights are expected to begin December 29, just under six weeks after the FAA order was released on November 18.
EASA represents the 27 countries of the European Union plus four other nations, including Norway, which has 92 aircraft on order. Until 31 December it also represents the UK, which left the EU bloc in January.
The incidents in Indonesia and Ethiopia sparked a series of investigations that accused Boeing of poor design and the FAA of poor oversight. They also questioned the FAA’s close relationship with Boeing.
“It is clear that there were a number of dysfunctions in the actions (FAA) and their dealings with Boeing,” Ky said. “I will not go into detail because it is not for me to do so. The FAA is in the process of putting corrective measures in place.”
He said EASA will change some of its methods and take a more detailed role in analyzing the critical characteristics of foreign jets. It would also be “more uncompromising” to ensure key security reviews are completed before moving on to the next steps, Ky said. Until now, one major regulator certifies an aircraft and others follow it primarily after varying degrees of independent testing.
“What will change is the way we validate and certify Boeing planes, that’s clear, but will it impact the (certification) timing? No, I don’t think; we’ll do things differently,” Ky said.
Boeing is developing the 777X, a larger version of its 777.
EASA is widely seen as emerging strengthened by the Boeing crisis and some regulators are awaiting its decisions on the MAX rather than immediately following the FAA as in the past.
FAA chief Steve Dickson downplayed the differences last week, saying there was “very little daylight” between regulators and that the FAA worked closely with Europe, Canada and Brazil.
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