United States Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao, has ordered an investigation to verify the certification issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to Boeing's 737 Max aircraft. The type of aircraft known for the recent aerial disasters.
The preface to the preliminary inquiry: "Security is the priority of the department, and we are all saddened by the deaths caused by recent accidents involving two Boeing 737-Max 8 aircraft in Indonesia and Ethiopia"
The intention of the secretary Chao is to want to revise the FAA's approval "to inform the department's decision-making process, help the public understand and ensure that the FAA's security procedures are effectively implemented".
On the business plan, Boeing is under pressure following the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, which killed 157 people. The two black boxes of the planes claimed to have detected "clear similarities" between the Ethiopian Airlines flight and the one crashed in Indonesia last October, which caused the death of 189 people.
The White House has announced the appointment of Steve Dickson, a former Delta Air Lines official, as permanent director of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the regulator of US civil aviation. President Donald Trump will appoint the former pilot as a Faa administrator just as the agency is going through the crisis triggered by the aerial disasters of Boeing 737 Max aircraft.
Dickson will replace Dan Elwell, who has temporarily led the agency for over a year. Elwell, a long-time aviation expert, is considered very close to Transport Secretary Elaine Chao, and cannot be excluded from staying at the FAA as deputy director.
Crisis announced to Boeing
Globally, all Boeing 737 Max aircraft have been grounded for precautionary reasons. Many airlines have expressed an afterthought regarding the purchase of the 737 Max, especially in Southeast Asia. Garuda Indonesia could cancel orders for 49 airplanes, as well as Vietnamese low-cost carrier VietJet Air, Malaysia Airlines and Lion Air, the Indonesian airline that was the protagonist of last October's plane crash. None of these companies has yet announced the formal cancellation of their respective orders for the 737 Max, which is the most commercially successful single-aisle aircraft in Boeing history - over 5 units ordered by more than 100 customers worldwide.
To date the only real alternative is the Airbus A320 series, but the production of that aircraft is already proceeding at the maximum possible speed: about 50 aircraft a month, and Airbus has accumulated 6 thousand back orders and has already made it known that it cannot accelerate immediately deliveries.
Chinese and Russians are ready to acquire this large slice of the market left to the American giant.
The Chinese manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Group (Comac) aims to position itself on the global market with its twin-engine C919. Wu Guanghui, president of Comac and chief designer of the aircraft, reported that the company has already submitted an application for C919 certification in Europe, which could come within four years. The company has already collected 800 orders, including those from new non-Chinese airlines.
In Russia, instead, Irkut is developing the MC-21, and aims to obtain certification next year.