Page 6 - Elite AirMail Spring 2024

INDUSTRY NEWS
FAA ROUNDUP: THE LATEST ON THE BOEING MAX,
NEW CONTROLLER TECH, GRANTS FOR YOUNG AVIATORS
The Federal Aviation Administration’s six- week audit of Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, prompted by the Jan. 5 incident involving the door on a new Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft, found multiple instances where the companies failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.
FAA identified non-compliance issues in
Boeing’s manufacturing process control, parts
handling and storage, and product control.
The audit is one of the oversight actions the administration took after a left mid-cabin door
plug blew out of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282
while in the air. At a meeting in Washington,
D.C., FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker told Boeing’s CEO and other senior leaders that the company must address the audit’s findings as part of its comprehensive corrective action plan to fix systemic quality control issues. The plan must also address the findings from the expert review panel report that examined Boeing’s safety culture. FAA gave Boeing 90 days to outline its plan.
To hold Boeing accountable for its production quality issues, FAA halted production expansion of the Boeing 737 MAX, suggested a third party conduct independent reviews of quality systems, and continued its increased onsite presence at Boeing’s facility in Renton, Wash., and Spirit AeroSystems’ facility in Wichita, Kan.
New Tech for Safety
FAA has launched a new surface safety tool called Approach Runway Verification (ARV) at air traffic control
towers across the nation. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) is the latest airfield to benefit.
“A safe National Airspace System begins and ends on the airport surface,” Whitaker said. “Providing controllers with tools such as [ARV] will improve their situational awareness of the airport surface, which is paramount to improving safety.”
ARV provides controllers with visual and audible alerts if an approaching aircraft is lined up to land
on the wrong airport surface—or even at the wrong airport. ARV is currently installed at 13 towers servicing
the airspace. FAA will deploy ARV at other facilities throughout the rest of the year and into 2025.
More Aviation Education
Thirty-two schools will receive $13.5 million in grants from FAA to help attract and train students for careers as pilots and aviation maintenance technicians.
Twelve of the schools will receive $4.5 million from the administration’s Aircraft Pilots Aviation Workforce Development Grants program. The schools can use the funding to create and deliver curriculum designed to prepare high school students to become pilots, aerospace engineers, or uncrewed aircraft operators. Grants may also be used to support the professional development of teachers.
The other $9 million will go to 20 schools as part of FAA’s Aviation Maintenance Technical Workers Workforce Development program. The grants
will help build back the pipeline of maintenance professionals; approximately 20,000 fewer people are working in the aircraft maintenance sector now than they were before the pandemic.
Recipients can use the funding to establish new educational programs, provide scholarships or apprenticeships, conduct outreach about careers in the aviation maintenance industry, or support educational opportunities related to aviation maintenance in economically disadvantaged areas.
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