It would cost $1.8 billion and take 10,000 new employees for the US aviation regulator to handle all aircraft certification internally, the agency’s acting chief told a Senate panel on Wednesday, facing tough questions after two Boeing 737 MAX crashes on how new planes are approved for flight.
The Federal Aviation Administration delegates much of the work of airplane certification to manufacturers such as Boeing under a decades-old process. The FAA has agreed to significantly improve its oversight of organizations performing certifications on its behalf by July 2019, US Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel told the panel.
The FAA’s acting head Daniel Elwell was asked why the FAA did not require disclosure of a new anti-stall software system in flight manuals or new pilot training before it certified the now grounded 737 MAX passenger jet in 2017.
