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> The MCAS design should never have been approved, not by Boeing, and not by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This is the line that stuck out to me.
by axaxs 7y ago
> The MCAS design should never have been approved, not by Boeing, and not by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
This is the line that stuck out to me. Basically, it never occurred to me that the FAA has to approve aircraft designs. And if that assumption is correct, who exactly would the approvers be, and are or can they even be qualified? It feels like they'd just be mostly trusting Boeing's judgment as not to upset the Juggernaut, which seems like a rather useless process.
- inamberclad 7y agoThe FAA actually does keep engineers on staff, and the aircraft manufacturer will have to explain and demonstrate how their aircraft complies with thousands of different requirements. This is actually one of the larger sub-controversies of the whole MCAS issue; the FAA has been progressively delegating more and more of airworthiness compliance to Boeing's engineers and trusting their results instead of verifying it themselves. With regards to the regulations, they're excruciatingly detailed. I encourage you to read 14 CFR 23, Airworthiness Standards: Normal Category Airplanes, and 14 CFR 25, Airworthiness Standards, Transport Category Airplanes.