U.S.lawmakers set to back Boeing 737 Max certification extension

Boeing isset to win backing from Congress for an extension of a looming deadlineimposing a new safety standard for modern cockpit alerts for two new versionsof the U.S. plane maker’s best-selling 737 Max aircraft, sources told Reuters.

The Chicago-based company has been intensely lobbying for months to convincelawmakers to waive the Dec. 27 deadline that affects its Max 7 and Max 10airplanes that was imposed by Congress in 2020 after two fatal 737 Max crasheskilled 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

Congressional leaders have agreed to attach the extension to a bill to fund U.S. government operations and to require new safety enhancements for existing Max aircraftproposed by U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, chair of the Senate CommerceCommittee, the sources said. That massive spending bill still must be passed inthe coming days.

Cantwell proposed requiring retrofitting existing Max airplanes with an “enhanced angleof attack (AOA) and a means to shut off stall warnings and overspeed alerts,for all Max aircraft,” Reuters reported on Nov. 30.

Faulty data from a single sensor that erroneously triggered a software function calledMCAS to repeatedly activate played critical roles in the fatal 737 Max crashes.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2020 required Boeing to retrofitplanes to ensure MCAS could activate only if it received data from two AOAsensors.

Boeing declined to comment, but Boeing Commercial Airplanes Chief Executive Stan Dealsaid last week the planemaker supported Cantwell’s safety retrofit proposal.

After Dec. 27, all planes must have modern cockpit alerting systems in order to becertified by the FAA, which could jeopardize the futures of the Max 7 and 10 ormean significant delays for the new aircrafts’ deployment - unless Congresspasses legislation. The alerting requirement does not apply to in-serviceairplanes previously certified by the FAA.

Boeing said in October it expects the 737 Max 7 to be certified this year or in 2023and last week Boeing’s Deal said he thinks the Max 10 could receivecertification in late 2023 or early 2024.

Michael Stumo, whose daughter died in the Ethiopian Airlines Max crash, criticized thedecision to add the provision, noting Congress had held no hearings on Boeing’srequest to extend the deadline. “No data, no examination,” Stumo told Reuterson Monday. “This is how people die on planes.”

Boeing won key support from aviation unions last week, according to previouslyunreported letters seen by Reuters.

International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers President Robert Martinez toldcongressional leaders in Dec. 14 letters seen by Reuters that the “deadlinethreatens to cancel the Max-10 and Max-7 aircraft programs, which would resultin devastating impacts on thousands of workers and their communities throughoutthe U.S., as well as the future of the U.S. aerospace industry.”